How I Became God
by Bookaholic346
Summary: Kazumi Yukihira is the High School Principal, skilled in the use of his Alices and one of the most powerful people at Alice Academy. Some people at the academy call him a God because of his unique Alices, but they forget that this man was once one of them; a student. Before Kazumi Yukihira could become God, he needed to survive the Academy first…
1. Prologue

_They call me a god. Maybe they're right. My Alices make me powerful. I cannot die like a normal human, and I can pick out other special people in this world using my eyes that can see through souls. I am like the hand of god. The people I point to are cursed._

_And I am cursed along with them._


	2. How my life became not boring

School was boring. Life was boring. There was nothing to do in this city; nothing for an elementary school kid to do anyway. I slumped over my desk, staring out of the window and wondering if I should ditch school today as well. I knew that the teachers didn't like me, I was too smart for my own good, and it caused problems for them. If I ditched, they didn't report me.

I sighed and tapped the ground impatiently with one foot. "Bored, bored, bored…" I sang under my breath. "Everything is bor-ing, everyone is dull…"

"That's not very nice." A sharp voice hissed right next to me.

I looked up, almost startled out of my chair. Squinting upwards, I saw that there was a boy standing next to my desk. He was someone I had never seen before, with longish brown hair, amber eyes and a scowl on his face.

"Who are you?" I said bluntly.

The boy's scowl deepened and a ripple of laughter spread across the classroom. The other kids were laughing at me again. What did I care?

"I introduced myself earlier." The boy said shortly. "I'm Ryuu Hanamitsu. I just transferred."

I drooped back over my desk again. "Oh." I said simply.

"Rude, aren't you?" Ryuu huffed. "Fine, be that way." There was a shuffling sound which I guessed was him moving away.

It was best that the new kid learned pretty early on not to talk to the class weirdo. I didn't want him to get laughed at as well.

Not that I cared.

* * *

I ditched maths class and went up to the roof. It was quieter up there, without the blabbing noise of the teacher whining in my ear. I leaned on the mesh fence that lined the edge of the roof, my forehead pushing against the cool metal.

Why had I waited four whole lessons to ditch today? Usually I was out of the classroom as soon as the first opportunity came up, but today I had let three perfectly good openings pass me by before I finally slipped out.

Wait, I did know why I had done it. I had been watching the new kid. He was interesting, not as lifeless and boring as every other kid that I had met. Watching him through the corner of my eye this morning, he seemed to glow slightly. An amber aura surrounded him, and it intrigued me.

Of course, it was highly possible that I had finally cracked, and was now hallucinating. The other kids had thought I was nuts for years, maybe I was finally living up to their predictable expectations?

I shook my head sharply, trying to tip the stupid thought from my mind. Impossible. I was pretty sure I wasn't crazy, I was far too sensible for that. So what does the amber aura mean? Does it mean that the new kid is special? Have I finally found someone to talk to that isn't boring? Only time would tell. I would watch and wait, and when the time was just right I would…

"Why are you up here?" A rude voice cut into my thoughts.

I turned around, incredulous. "Thinking." I said irritably. "Why are _you_ up here?"

Ryuu rolled his eyes. "I wondered what happened to you. Everyone else in our class just sort of avoids talking about you. Made me curious… why do they hate you?" He leaned back against the wall of the stairwell, an annoyingly passive expression on his face. He was obviously taking the risk of skipping maths class too, but his face was as stress free as a person relaxing at the beach.

"They don't hate me." I replied. "I hate them."

Ryuu smirked. "That's a stupid answer."

"Well, it was a stupid question in the first place, wasn't it?" I retorted.

There was silence as we both fumed.

"You never did tell me your name, like any polite person would." Ryuu pointed out. "I told you mine when you asked."

I frowned. "The others didn't tell you?" I asked.

Ryuu shook his head. "They only told me that you were weird, and it was best not to talk to you."

"They're probably right." I admitted. "I'm a bad influence."

Ryuu just shrugged. "I prefer to make up my own mind about people."

I hesitated. "It's Kazumi Yukihira." I told him.

Ryuu grinned. "Cool." He paused. "I thought you weren't going to tell me for a bit there."

I couldn't help but grin too. "My Grandma keeps telling me I'm too stubborn for my own good." I said. "Maybe it's time to fix that."

Ryuu held his hand out to me, faint amber beads flicking across his skin. "I'd like to be friends." He said.

I stared at the hand. "Are you sure?" I asked suspiciously. "I've never had a proper friend before. I'll probably screw it up."

Ryuu laughed. "You're like me then." He pushed the hand out further.

I took the hand and shook it firmly. "What do you mean?" I asked. "You seemed pretty popular this morning."

Ryuu sighed. "My family moves around a lot." He said. "I've never been in one place long enough to make proper friends."

"Oh…" I trailed off. "That sucks."

Ryuu laughed. "That sums the situation up pretty well actually." He looked at me with his serious amber eyes. "But you seem different, so I guess it's okay to be friends with you this time."

I smiled to myself. Ryuu didn't know the truth. This time it was actually him that was different. I was nothing special. Lady Luck is finally smiling on a boring guy like me; giving me this friend that sparkled with amber light in the midday sun.

"I think I'm going to like having a friend." I whispered to myself.


	3. How Ryuu became my best friend

Best friends had never formed faster, I reckon. By the end of the week we already had gotten a reputation at school for being the badass partnership. The roof became our hangout, where we would go when we didn't feel like attending the lessons that the teachers tried to get us to pay attention to. Ryuu quickly established himself as yet another problem genius child. Every question they asked him he seemed to have the answer in a heartbeat, almost like he could read their minds or see into the future. Ryuu was as smart, if not smarter than me. Needless to say, that made a lot of the other kids jealous. Half of them were attending cram school, trying to get into a good middle school. Ryuu and I didn't even bother with homework.

When a girl asked Ryuu why he didn't go to a cram school, he laughed and told her. "Why would I bother looking ahead to middle school now? I don't even know what city I'll be in then!" Then the two of us ran away.

I found out pretty quickly why Ryuu's family had moved to this city, when previously they had been moving around small towns and country villages. Ryuu's little sister was sick, and she needed to be close to a hospital. I could tell that Ryuu was really worried about her, especially because of the fact that his family could barely afford her medical fees as of now. Who knows what would happen if she got any worse?

I met her, the first time that Ryuu invited me over to his place. It was a small apartment, but it was stuffed to the brim of all sorts of junk. Framed pictures lined the walls of his home, documenting every second of Ryuu and his sister's childhood.

Ryuu looked embarrassed as I looked them over. "Mom is a bit over protective." He explained sheepishly.

"Is that because of your sister?" I asked.

Ryuu blinked at me. "Uh… yeah, it's because of Nana." He mumbled. He turned away quickly and started pushing his way into the living room. I followed him wordlessly, wondering why he had given me such an unsure answer.

The room was tiny, but the girl curled up in the corner of it made it look huge. She looked to be about four, but I knew that she was actually five; small and skinny for her age. Her hair was cut short into spiky tuffs that were thrown all around her bedraggled face. Despite a hint of white in her face, she was wearing a massive grin that stretched from ear to ear and she sat bolt upright as we came into the room.

"Nii-san!" She cried, a slight pink of joy washing into her cheeks.

Ryuu ignored all the obvious signs of sickness that would make most people falter. "I'm home!" He trotted over to Nana and swept her into a careful hug. I hovered by the door, trying to mind my own business.

Nana fixed her eyes on me almost immediately, an inquisitive look on her face. "Who's that?" She asked Ryuu.

Ryuu's eyes twinkled as he looked down at her. "That's my friend; Kazumi." He explained with a hint of pride in his voice. He winked at me. "Kazu, this is my little sister, Nana."

Nana looked at me in wonder. "Nii-san's never brought a friend home before." She looked at me curiously. "How come?"

Ryuu hit her lightly on the head. "Don't make it sound like I don't know how to make friends!" He complained.

Nana rolled her bright green eyes and giggled. "Whatever." She said. "I'm still glad that Nii-san finally found a good friend." She looked up at me. "Nice to meet you Kazumi."

I smiled nervously. "It's nice to meet you too." I replied.

Nana insisted on making tea for us by herself, but after a few minutes of helpless fidgeting, Ryuu got up and went into the kitchen to help her, leaving me free to stare around their living room without worrying about his embarrassment.

Just like the hallway, there was an abundance of stuff here too. Pictures were propped up on every flat surface, and even the small TV served a double purpose, becoming the perfect perch for a small goldfish bowl where a fat orange fish swam lazily. It was a very different environment compared to my huge empty house, where the only personal touches to be seen are the paint and an expensive painting in the hallway. My Mom and Dad weren't at home enough to justify to themselves decorating it. My room mimicked their attitude. Everything was neatly put away in a drawer or a cupboard. If it wasn't needed, I threw it out. Ryuu's family looked like hoarders, never throwing a single thing away. As if to prove my thought correct, I glimpsed a blue baby bootie tucked into a niche between two books on one of the shelves. I smothered a giggle. Ryuu's old babywear was just hanging around, I'm pretty sure that mine was given to charity as soon as I was out of nappies.

"Sorry for the wait!" A sing song voice startled me out of my amused thoughts. Nana came back into the room holding a packet of chocolate biscuits and closely followed by Ryuu, who was holding a tray of cups.

Ryuu placed the tray down on the table with a sigh and sat down directly across from me. "Turns out we don't even have any tea, so Nana and I found some lemonade instead." He told me.

Nana grinned as she poured herself a drink out of the bottle of fizzy drink. Ryuu scowled at her as he took the bottle out of her grip. "Guests first." He told her as he poured some drink into the two other cups. He nodded to me, so I gingerly took one and sipped at the cool liquid.

"Thanks." I murmured.

Ryuu took a swig of his own drink. "Sorry about how messy our house is." He apologised. "It's usually a little better than this…"

"Not really." Nana cut in as she took a biscuit for herself.

"… but we move a lot, and it's such a pain to pack up everything when it's been neatly put away that we just don't bother anymore." Ryuu finished.

"I thought you were here for longer this time." I asked. "Wouldn't you want to make things neater?"

Ryuu and Nana exchanged looks. "Don't know what's going to happen about Dad's job." Nana piped up. "Sometimes we have to pack up and leave really quickly."

"Once we were only given three days warning to move." Ryuu said. "That was the worst."

Nana nodded. "We lost a ton of stuff that time."

"What does your dad do?" I wondered. "I didn't know that there were Jobs that made you move so suddenly."

Ryuu said nothing, and took another quick gulp of his drink.

"We're not really sure what he does." Nana said cheerfully. "I think he's some sort of researcher or something."

"Yeah." Ryuu said.

The two of them looked rather uncomfortable, so I changed the subject. Ryuu obviously had his own reasons as to why he was keeping something from me, and I told myself that I didn't have the right to ask about it. After all, we had only known each other for a month. That was barely any time at all. If Ryuu moved again tomorrow, he probably wouldn't remember me at all in six months' time.

* * *

I spent a lot of time over at Ryuu's place that summer, it was much more fun to hang out with him and Nana that stay cooped up in my own dark house, reading and watching TV. Ryuu came over to my place a couple of times, but I knew he found it weird that my Mom was never home, so we made an unspoken agreement to spend as little time as possible there. Ryuu's home was a lot more fun. His Mom all but adopted me into the family, exploding with delight the first time she met me. It was an intensified version of Nana's glee over the fact that Ryuu had found a friend, and it left both me and Ryuu a little shell shocked. Ryuu didn't stop apologising to me for an hour.

Six months went by pretty quickly, and although nothing seemed to change: Ryuu and I still bunked a lot of school, I hung out at his place, his Mom was forever doting on us; there was a subtle difference as time went on. Nana wasn't getting better in her new, more stable home. Even having the hospital nearby to monitor her health wasn't helping in the slightest, and she was getting worse with each passing day.

She was supposed to start school when she turned six, but she couldn't go. She had reached the point where she was too weak to leave the house. Ryuu had less and less time to play after school, as he had to help look after Nana while his Mom worked part time, trying desperately to secure more funds for Nana's hospital treatments.

I often went home with Ryuu after school to help with Nana. After all the time I'd spent at Ryuu's I was as much her friend as his. She really was a sweet kid, and made me wonder what life would have been like if I had a little sibling to take care of. Ryuu was not the only one worrying about her anymore. I wanted so badly to help them, but I couldn't ask my parents for the money they needed, it was impractical, and Ryuu would never take it anyway.

I did my best to try and keep Ryuu's mind off Nana when he was at school. Our pranks started getting more and more elaborate, but we did kind of settle down a bit. We stopped bunking class so much. Ryuu's parents did not need the extra worry of Ryuu's poor behaviour at school to deal with. It was my fault that he started skipping so much in the first place, so it was my job to fix it.

Ryuu turned nine first, but he refused to have a proper celebration until my birthday two weeks later. Ryuu wanted to have a joint party at his place to acknowledge both our birthdays. I was thrilled, I'd never had a birthday party before. The day was brilliant, even Nana seemed to perk up and get more energy for the day. Ryuu's mother baked the best cake I had ever tasted, and Ryuu and I swapped gifts. He got me a slingshot, I got him a water pistol. It appears that great minds think alike.

"We are going to have fun with this." Ryuu said as he admired the toy. "Do you think that our maths teacher would appreciate a soaking?"

Ryuu's Mom bopped him on the head. "Don't even think about it." She warned, giving us two the evil eye.

Nana laughed, jiggling up and down in her seat. I held on to this crazy hope that her health would get steadily better from the day forward just because she had gotten so much better on the day of the party. When Ryuu looked at me, I could see the same hope in his eyes. He wanted his sister to get better quickly too.

That didn't happen.


	4. How I became worried

"Kazu…" Ryuu looked out of the window at the drizzle, a faraway look on his face. "What should I do?"

I took a seat at the desk next to his. It was lunch time, and all the other kids were in their little groups of friends, giving us a wide berth. Even though it was safe to say that none of the other children could hear us, it was unusual for Ryuu to mention his problems in class. He had never done so before now.

"I don't think you can do anything." I said honestly. "We're only nine. It's not like you can go and get a part time job like your Mom."

Ryuu didn't look at me. "What if I _could_ do something to help, but it meant that I had to do something that would make Mom and Dad really sad?"

I looked sharply at him. "What are you thinking of doing?" I asked carefully. "You're not going to do anything dangerous, right?"

Ryuu shook his head. "No."

I looked at the floor. "Is Nana really not getting any better?" My throat felt tight as I squeezed the question out. "Is she… Is she going to… to…"

Ryuu sat bolt upright, turning to look at me with a panicked expression on his face. "She won't!" He protested in horror. "I won't let her! No matter what Mom and Dad say, I'm going to save Nana!"

I looked at him in shock. His wild outburst had startled the whole class. It wasn't like Ryuu to yell out like that, something was most definitely up, and there was something that he wasn't telling me. I grabbed his wrist and tugged him out of the classroom, heading towards the rooftop at a run.

* * *

We obviously couldn't go onto the roof while it was raining, so we sat at the top of the stairs, saying nothing as we tried to catch our breath. Ryuu's face was pale white, and he kept shivering every so often, even though all the heaters throughout the school were going at full blast. Most of the kids were wearing T-shirts while they were indoors today.

"What's going on?" I had to ask him. He couldn't possibly deal with all this alone.

Ryuu drooped, almost curling into a ball as he hugged his knees. "I overheard my parents arguing about Nana last night." He admitted softly.

"Is it that bad now?" I bit my lip. Was this really all I could do for Ryuu and Nana; listen to their problems?

Ryuu shook his head. "It's been this way for a while." He said. "I just didn't realise." He turned to look at me with haunted eyes. "There's no money to help Nana, and it's all my fault." He didn't cry. He didn't break down. Ryuu looked dead inside, like he really thought that everything was his fault.

"How can it because of you?" I snorted. "You didn't make Nana sick, did you?"

Ryuu shook his head. "That's not it. It's because of me that Mom and Dad don't have enough money to take care of Nana."

I stared at him. "I don't understand." I frowned.

Ryuu sighed. "Sorry." He buried his head in his hands. "You wouldn't get it, I haven't told you the real reason that we keep moving all the time. I'm sorry." He hid his face from me like he was ashamed. "I'm sorry."

"I knew that you weren't telling me the truth about that, but I figured that you had a good reason." I looked away from him to stare at the grey wall beside us. "You don't have to apologise."

Ryuu drew one ragged breath. "Can you keep a secret?" He whispered hoarsely.

I caught his eyes and nodded solemnly. "Yeah, to the grave."

"There's this school in Tokyo, called Alice Academy." Ryuu explained. "It's a government school for the super elite, the geniuses of Japan."

I nodded slowly, unsure of where Ryuu was going with this.

Ryuu looked at me with his amber eyes and said: "I was scouted when I was little, and they offered me a place there. I'm what people call an Alice. Mom and Dad didn't want me to go because I was really young and it's a boarding school in Tokyo."

"So they just turned the guys from the government down, right?" I said. "No one can force your parents into sending you to a school like that."

Ryuu looked at the ground darkly, fists bunching up in his T-shirt. "I wish it was like that." He said bitterly. "But once the government knows that you're an Alice, they keep hounding you, making life difficult until you agree to go to the academy. Alices are like national treasures, they want to keep them safe in Tokyo."

"Safe?" I spluttered. "Are you in some sort of danger?"

Ryuu shrugged. "I keep a pretty low profile, but there have been some times when guys have tried to kidnap me: probably to sell me overseas or something. It's no big deal."

I raised an eyebrow. "I think you are being too offhand about this." I said dryly. "I mean, _kidnapping_?"

Ryuu shook his head. "That's not the point here." He said firmly. "The point is that the only way to keep me out of the Academy was to run away. Mom and Dad decided that every time that someone discovered that I was an Alice we would have to move away to some new place where no one knew who we were. That way we could keep the people from Alice Academy off our backs."

"Wow…" Of all the explanations I had thought of Ryuu's family's constant moving, that one had never occurred to me before.

Ryuu grinned. "It's a crazy story, right?"

The ceiling tugged at my eyes, and I found myself looking up at the flicking light bulb up there. "Yep." I agreed. "So do you think that because you move around a lot your parents don't have enough money to help Nana?"

Ryuu grunted. "Yeah. Dad had a really high paying office job in Tokyo before we found out that I was an Alice. If it wasn't because of my Alice, we'd probably have lots of money to spare."

"I think that you're worrying about this too much." I told him. "There's nothing you can do about this now."

Ryuu was quiet for a long moment. "I overheard Mom and Dad arguing last night." He said flatly.

"You already said that… you said they were fighting about Nana."

Ryuu shook his head. "Sort of… not really." He paused. "They were really fighting about me. Dad was trying to convince Mom that we should send me to Alice Academy, but Mom said that I would go to that school over her dead body." Ryuu's eyes brimmed over, and tears started splashing down his cheeks. "Kazumi… they never told me that Alice Academy gives a lot of money to the family of an Alice student. The whole community they come from gets regular donations, and the money that they can give us would be able to cover Nana's medical expenses ten times over."

My eyes glassed over and my ears started to buzz. "Are Alices really that valuable?" I asked incredulously.

Ryuu nodded. "They didn't tell me any of this!" He said angrily. "If I had gone to that school years ago, Nana might have been well by now, she could have had the very best medical care." He looked away. "She also wouldn't have to move around anymore. She could stay in one place and make friends."

"So why does your Mom not want you to go?"

"There are some bad rumours about Alice Academy." Ryuu admitted. "They say that they once you go in, the academy basically control you and your family." He shuddered. "Mom described it once as a hostage system. The parents can't abandon the kids that are staying at the academy, so will do anything the academy says in order not to be cut off from them. The kids are similar; they don't want something bad to happen to their parents on the outside, so they stay in the academy meekly." Ryuu shook his head. "It seems more like a prison than a school."

"But they have to let kids out for holidays, right?" I said. "They can't keep them from seeing their parents all year round. I mean, some of the kids have to be really little if it's also a full elementary school."

Ryuu blinked. "I guess so." He murmured. "I could always come see you in the holidays. It's not like it's goodbye forever."

"So you are seriously thinking of going to this school?"

Ryuu flinched. "I don't know… Nana needs help, and I can get the money… so…"

"I don't think you should go." I said flatly.

"Huh?"

"I don't think you should do this." I said firmly.

Ryuu's eyes flashed. "Why not? If it helps Nana…"

I looked at him coolly. "I know you're not telling me everything about this school that you know." I said shortly. "My gut instinct tells me that you should stay away from this place."

"Did anyone tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth? This could be my only chance to save Nana!" Ryuu said.

"The Trojans didn't look at their gift horse very thoroughly either, and look what happened to them." I argued. "Besides, how do you think Nana would feel if her brother went away to a boarding school that he's been avoiding for his whole life just to save her? She'd feel awful Ryuu, you know she wouldn't want this at all."

"Sometimes we can't always get what we want. Maybe it's time that Nana learned that." Ryuu said bitterly.

"Ryuu!" I gasped.

Ryuu winced and curled his fingers up in his hair, as if his head was aching. "I'm sorry Kazumi, I don't know what I'm saying."

I sighed heavily. "Just say you won't leave me and Nana behind. Promise."

Ryuu's amber eyes seemed to glow as they latched onto mine. "I _swear_ I won't leave." He grinned weakly. "I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

_He lied._

_ He lied. _

_He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_ He lied._

_**He lied to me.**_

* * *

_Chapter 3 is finished! Hope you liked it! _

_I realised lately that I haven't been putting an author's note at the end of my chapters. I think it's just because I'm lazy. I really want to finish this fanfiction properly this time around. Gakuen Alice is just the best story to write for, and that's because it's got so many unexplored backstories. I was browsing the a few weeks ago and saw that no one had really done a fic for the High School Principal's background, even though he seems like such an interesting character. So, I decided that I would be the first to take up the challenge of filling in the blanks for him. I just hope that I can do him justice._

_Please review if you can. I love constructive criticism. Tell me if you think there is some way in which I can improve!_


	5. How I became Nii

I woke up one morning. I went to school. It was just like any other day. Except…

Instead of calling the roll, the teacher stood up the front of the classroom and told everyone that Ryuu Hanamitsu had transferred away and would no longer be coming to school. The homeroom teacher sounded almost proud as he told us that Hanamitsu-kun had been accepted into a prestigious government school in Tokyo, and would be carrying out the rest of his education there.

The other kids turned to chat amongst themselves excitedly. Who would have thought that Hanamitsu-kun would be accepted into such an amazing school? Suddenly everyone was claiming that they would miss him a lot, and the whole class began discussions on making a congratulatory card to send to him at his new school. A noisy girl with pig tails pushed her way to the front and started taking charge.

Meanwhile, I hadn't moved. I stared down at the scratched wooden surface of my desk as if it was some foreign object.

"He… wouldn't…" My voice cracked. "He promised… he _swore_."

"Uh… Yukihira-kun?"

I looked up with glazed eyes to stare at the girl with the pigtails. She was smiling down at me with a sickly sweet grin. "Ye…s?"

"You were friends with Hanamitsu, right? Do you know the address of his new school?" The girl wouldn't stop grinning at me. It made my stomach turn. "You should help us with the card, you'll know his favourite colour, won't you."

I stood up sharply, the chair squealing across the hardwood floor in a wail that had the whole class covering their ears. "Find that stuff out on your own." I said coldly. "I don't want to hear his name again."

Then I stalked out of the classroom, blowing past the startled teacher with ease. No one tried to stop me, and I left the school grounds without someone so much as calling my name.

* * *

I scuffed my shoes on the ground. "They don't care about us at all." I huffed. "I bet they don't even remember Ryuu's full name. It's just 'Hanamitsu-kun'."

I kicked a pebble as hard as I could, sending it sailing over a hedge and into someone's garden.

Ryuu wouldn't have left without telling me, right? My heart pounded. There was no way! My feet began to pick up speed, and though I hadn't consciously told them where I wanted to go, they were already taking me there.

* * *

Ryuu's Mom and Dad were out when I arrived to frantically knock on the door of their apartment. Instead of the door opening to reveal Ryuu, the person I wanted to see, the door swung open to Nana. She was wrapped in a blanket and shivering, tear tracks and puffy eyes making her face look red and raw.

"Kazumi…" She said, a little stunned.

"Nana…" Her face told me everything I needed to know. "He's really gone… isn't he?"

Nana's lip quivered. "Yup." She ran forward, almost tripping over her blanket to launch herself at me. She wrapped her thin arms around me and started to wail. "Why did Nii-san have to go?" She cried.

I hugged her back tightly. "Because he's a moron." I said stubbornly as tears began to drip down my own face. "He's a big fat moron."

It took a while for Nana to stop crying, but when she finally did she invited me into the apartment.

"Ryuu left something for you." She explained as she pulled me indoors.

She took me to the living room, where sitting on the table was a big white envelope. Nana gestured towards it. "It took him forever to write it." She hiccupped.

I sat down in front of the envelope, numbness spreading throughout my whole body. The name on the envelope was clearly mine, but I hesitated to take hold of it. Nana helped me in the end, she picked up the envelope and placed it in my hands, so there was no way that I could run away from it anymore.

_Dear Kazu_

_I'm breaking my promise. If that means that we can't be friends anymore, I guess I'm going to have to live with that. I talked with my Dad, asked him to tell me the truth about everything, all the things he and Mom had been keeping from me._

_The truth is; Nana's illness can be cured. It's not a 'what if' anymore. I can definitely save her. Unfortunately, if I go away to the academy, I'm not going to be able to protect her from anything else, like a big brother should. I know this is selfish, seeing how we probably aren't friends anymore, but can you be Nana's big brother in my place? Just watch over her the best that you can, please._

_I'm probably not coming back anytime soon, so it's best to just forget about me. I'll try and send lots of letters, but I'll probably forget, so don't get your hopes up too much._

_From Ryuu_

"Moron." I muttered. "You're such a moron Ryuu."

I looked over at Nana, who had fallen asleep in the short period of time that it had taken me to read through Ryuu's letter.

"You're still not well, are you?" I murmured, looking down to her curled up form. "How could Ryuu leave you all alone like this?"

She shuffled around slightly, sighing in her sleep. She looked so little and lost.

"It's okay; I'll stay with you until your Nii-san comes back." I told her gently. "I will protect you."


	6. How I became annoyed

"Kazu! Kazu! Kazu!"

I looked around sharply just in time to see a blur collide with me.

"Ugh!"

Nana looked up at me with her shining green eyes. "I missed you Kazu!" Her arms, once so thin, were wrapped around my waist.

"It's only been two weeks." I laughed. "It hasn't been that long at all!"

Nana pouted. "It felt like ages to me!"

"Was Tokyo really that bad?" I asked.

Nana frowned. "I only got to see the hospital, so it was super boring."

I grinned and rubbed her head with one hand. "As long as you get better, I don't think anyone cares how bored you are."

Nana just laughed. "Can we play after school today?" She asked eagerly, blinking puppy dog eyes.

"Sure. We can walk back to your place later." I smiled as she nodded and ran away to the grade one class. Lots of the students at my school were surprised when they saw me treating Nana like a little sister when she started school here. They thought that Ryuu and I had had some sort of massive fight before he went away to his new school. I still refused to even talk about him. However, Nana was different. I treated her like she was part of my own family; she was the only one that I really talked to at school at all. We got lots of stares and funny looks. However, Nana didn't seem to mind, and we ignored them all. Now the whole school has accepted my strange relationship with Nana, and they left us in relative peace.

It had been almost a year since Ryuu had left, and I think the only people that still remembered him properly were Nana and me. Although Ryuu's parents still welcomed me into their house like a member of their family, they never mentioned Ryuu anymore. Whenever Nana or I said his name they would always turn away, avoiding the subject. I gradually deduced that they were consumed by the guilt that they had been forced to exchange their son for money in order to save their daughter. I could tell that the two of them were still arguing about whether it was the right thing to do. Maybe the only reason they had held their marriage together so far is that they still had the task of caring for Nana left to them.

Nana was finally as healthy as a normal six year old should be. By her seventh birthday, the only reminder of her illness was the regular check-ups she had to go through at the hospital. The trip to Tokyo was the final session she needed in order for her illness to be cured. Now she was able to live her life like a normal child.

It made me sad that Ryuu couldn't see her now. Despite all his (weak) promises to write letters to us, not a single page has arrived from Tokyo, despite the flood of correspondence that Nana and I sent to him. By the day of my tenth birthday, I was so mad at his lack of attention to us that I was about ready to explode.

* * *

"Kazumi, you have been looking distressed lately." The woman looked up through her clean cut black fringe to stare at me piercingly across the table. "Is this something that we should be concerned about?"

The man sitting to her right nodded, also looking at me with a stern expression in his eyes.

I shook my head. "It's not really anything." I said sullenly. "Since when did you care about whether I looked 'distressed' or not?"

The woman looked down her nose at me, eyebrows twitching down. "I am your mother Kazumi. I have a right to be concerned. Tell us what it is that has you so upset."

"Fine." I huffed. "It's my friend Ryuu, he still hasn't written anything back to me or Nana."

My father arched his eyebrows. "This is the boy that went away to Alice Academy?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's been almost a year. I would have thought…"

"I thought we told you to forget about that child?" My mother said in a condescending tone. "Once a person is enrolled in that school, they can never come back home."

My eyes widened. "What do you mean?" I croaked.

My mother blinked. "I thought you knew darling; the academy is very strict with its students."

My father nodded, tapping his neat fingernails on the table. "They even restrict the student's mail, I heard." He said. "If the child is causing problems, then they have the power to cut off all communication to the outside."

My mother laughed. "So you see, dear, your little friend has probably been too naughty to be allowed to send letters to you, so you better give up on getting any." She smiled, her frozen face almost creaking as she used joints that were in foreign use. "He's most likely got a whole new group of friends to play with by now. It's just silly to keep clinging to this absurd idea that the boy will come back and still be friends with you. Make some new friends Kazumi."

At this point, I stood up and walked away, saying nothing further to those who were supposed to be closest to me. This was the first time in my life that I honestly wanted to hit my own parents. They had never cared about me before, and it suited me that they left me to my own devices, but this talk was just inhuman. Was I supposed to just forget about the best friend that I had ever had? Especially now that I had gained this new information I didn't know what to think about the situation anymore.

I went up to my room and collapsed onto my bed, burrowing my face into my pillow. Was it true? Was Ryuu really not able to send any letters to me at all? If that part was true, then did that mean that Ryuu might not be _receiving_ any of our letters either? Panic made me freeze. If Ryuu hadn't got any or our letters, he might not know that Nana was doing just fine now. Ryuu had sacrificed his freedom to save his little sister; I don't know what the lack of information about her condition would do to him. He could be in so much pain right now, and all I had been caring about was my own selfish desire to gain a letter from him.

I'm such a horrible friend. But there's nothing I can do about it now but keep trying to send him letters and fulfil his last wish of taking care of Nana for him.

Why am I always so helpless?


	7. How we decided what to do

I didn't know whether I should tell Nana what I had found out from my parents. Although her health had improved greatly, she was still so fragile. What would she think if she found out that her brother could be suffering so?

I couldn't think of any way to get around the barrier that the academy posed. I had to make sure that Ryuu was alright, and that he knew that he had managed to save Nana. I couldn't let him torment himself in that prison of a school. I knew that I had to get the news of Nana's recovery to him, and I knew that I couldn't rely on the post to do that… so what could I do?

I could try and get accepted into the academy myself. That was one way of getting to see Ryuu again. I was definitely smart; maybe if I poured my heart and soul into studying, they might let me take the entrance exam?

No, that was a stupid idea. Alice Academy was a school for geniuses, everyone keeps saying so. I may be intelligent, but I wasn't a genius. I could study for a million years and they still wouldn't let me so much as touch the school gates.

"Kazu?" Nana tugged on my sleeve gently. "Kazu… it's your turn now."

I blinked myself out of my thoughts and turned my attention back to what I was supposed to be doing now: playing a game of snakes and ladders with Nana. "Oh… yeah…" I picked up the die and shook it in my fist, letting it spill out onto the board with a sharp clatter.

"Six!" Nana sang as she moved my piece forward for me. "Lucky! You get a ladder!"

I smiled at her as she moved the game piece up the ladder in one smooth motion. Her mouth hung open as she concentrated on getting it to the right place, and I couldn't help but think again about how lucky Ryuu was to have such a cute little sister.

"Kazu!"

"Huh?" I had zoned out again.

"Really!" Nana huffed. "Pay attention idiot! It's your turn again."

"I'm sorry Nana." I sighed, reaching for the die again.

Nana was faster, she snatched it from the table before my fingers could get there. "What's wrong?" she looked at me with a stubborn gleam in her eye. "You haven't been concentrating on this at all."

I shook my head and held my hand out for the die. "It's nothing." I said. "Let's just play."

Nana glared down her nose at me. "It's not that simple." She said loftily. "Tell me what you're thinking about or… or…" She racked her mind, trying to think of something. "Or we're not friends anymore!"

"Huh?" That was unexpectedly harsh of her. "Why?"

"I don't have friends who are always keeping secrets from me." Nana said forcefully. "If you don't tell me, then we can't be friends anymore."

"Whatever." I sighed. "Don't blame me when it turns out to be something that you don't want to hear."

So I told her, and she just sat there and listened for a long time in unnerving silence. Maybe I should have given Nana more credit, the way that she listened to my story showed a level of maturity that may have even superseded my own.

"So what do we do now?" She asked quietly when I was done.

I shrugged, staring up at the ceiling. "I have no clue. It's not like I can just waltz up to the academy and demand to see Ryuu. They're not going to let me in."

"Do you think they would let me see Ryuu? I mean, I'm his little sister." Nana suggested.

"If they don't let parents see the kids, what makes you think that they'll let siblings?" I said darkly. "No, I don't think they'll let anyone see him if we just ask politely."

Nana frowned. "Can the police help?"

"I don't think so." I said. "If the Academy can take children away from parents, I think they must have friends in high places. We have to assume that the police are under their control."

The two of us sat there dumbly for a while, stumped for ideas. It really was a hopeless situation.

"If we can't see him by trying to follow the rules, maybe we should just break them." Nana said suddenly. "Why don't we just sneak into the Academy when no one is looking?"

I stared at her. "You don't think there'll be too much security?"

"They won't expect a kid to try and break in." Nana said brightly. "Maybe that means there might be loophole that only a kid could get through that they didn't think to patch up."

I couldn't help but grin. Nana's idea was as stupid and crazy as it was brilliant.

"You know, that might just work."

* * *

_Sorry, it's a short chapter this time around. This is kind of an awkward chapter now that I'm looking back on it, but hopefully it's okay. It's kind of a filler. Things are going to get more exciting soon, I promise._

_I always love to see comments; they make me jump up and down with excitement every time I see that a person takes the time to tell me what they think (thank you Ruby Tsuki and MikanXNatsume4ever98. I thought I should shout out to the people that have given me reviews so far! You are my new favourite people!). Anyways, I hope you like the chapter!_


	8. How I became prepared

It took me ages to convince Nana not to come. She wanted to see her brother so badly; I would have been surprised if she hadn't insisted on coming along with me. As it was I could only convince her to stay at home by promising to bring back a letter from Ryuu with me. It was a bit of a longshot promise to be totally honest. There was only a very slim chance that I might be able to sneak my way into the school, and after that I had no way of knowing that I'd be able to find Ryuu. It was a bit of a wild goose chance right from the get-go, but I had to try.

Alice Academy was in Tokyo, a four hour train ride away. Needless to say, it wasn't going to be a day trip to get there and back, and besides that little problem, I had no money for the train. This is where I started to put to use all my mischief skills to use. My Mom and Dad were way too lax with their security around the house. There was also the fact that they wouldn't believe me capable of stealing from them. Before they figured out what was going on, I'd probably be there and back again.

I started out small, stealing tiny amounts of money from their wallets while they were asleep. I hid the money in a shoebox in the back of my wardrobe. The slow process was excruciating, but over the next couple of weeks I watched the amount grow and grow and grow.

Finally I started to get more daring, I stole my mother's credit card after I had memorised her pin and went down to the shopping centre where she did most of her shopping. There I withdrew about ten thousand yen. It was a bit risker than the wallet thievery, but my mother was withdrawing money from the same ATM all the time. She wouldn't think an extra transaction from the same place on her credit card bill to be that strange at all. If she did notice that there was one more transaction than she thought she would just brush it aside as something she had forgotten. After this last daring theft from my parents, I had accumulated close to twenty thousand yen from my parents. Hopefully that, along with all my savings, would be enough for the short trip to Tokyo. Now I just had to wait for the perfect opportunity to go without my parents noticing.

* * *

I came home from school one Friday to find a note on the kitchen table which handed me my opportunity on a silver platter.

_Your father and I have to go away for the weekend. Your Grandmother has fallen ill and we need to pay our respects. We don't know how long this trip will take so you will have to stay here, as we do not want you to miss out on school. I'm sure Grandmother will understand, as you have very important exams in two years' time to worry about._

_Love, Mother._

I couldn't help but grin slyly. The circumstances were perfect, all I had to do was execute my plan and get home again without getting caught. I put down the note and immediately ran to my bedroom. Once there, I yanked out my duffel bag and started to stuff the things I needed inside. Last but not least I dug the shoebox out from the back of my wardrobe and counted the money again. I could afford no mistakes; I had to have enough for both the train ride there and back. I would worry about where I was sleeping when I got there.

When I was about halfway through packing, I remembered something important. Nana had not given me a letter to give to Ryuu. If I saw him, I wanted to hand him a letter from Nana. He needed the reassurance from her personally, I was sure of it. I quickly locked up the house and made my way to Nana's place at a steady trot.

* * *

Her Mom opened the door, a look of quiet surprise spreading across her face when she saw who it was.

"Kazu!" She exclaimed. "Shouldn't you be at home? Your Mom probably has dinner ready about now."

Damn, I forgot about that. "My Mother and Father are working late tonight, so I have to make my own dinner today." I smiled. "It's no big deal; I just wanted to see Nana for a bit."

Nana's mother moved aside to let me into their home. "Come on in!" She said. "If your parents aren't home, why don't you stay for dinner here tonight?" She hovered at the kitchen doorway as I moved ahead to get to the living room.

"That's okay." I told her. "Mom left some stuff in the fridge at home. It would be rude if I didn't eat it."

She nodded. "Okay then, some other time perhaps?"

"Definitely." I promised her as I ducked into the living room.

Nana was at the table, working industriously at her homework. She got up with a delightful spring in her step when she saw me. "Kazu!" She cried, hugging me tightly. "Why are you here?"

I shut the door carefully behind me. "I came to get your letter to Ryuu." I said quietly and urgently. "I'm going to try and see him tomorrow."

Nana's eyes were huge. "Okay." She said breathlessly. "Wait here." She darted out of the room as nimble as a bounding rabbit, leaving me to stand awkwardly in the centre of the empty room. I tapped my toes impatiently. My chest felt hot, like I was in the middle of committing a crime. I just wanted to get Nana's letter and go home. This sneaking around was making me feel uncomfortable.

"Kazumi?" A surprised male voice made me jump, and I swivelled around to face the door like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.

"Uh… hello sir…" I stuttered to Nana's Dad, who was leaning on the door frame of the living room.

"Haven't seen you in a while, eh?" He came in, a smile on his face, to stand opposite me. Obviously I wasn't in trouble, not with his easy-going expression.

I smiled apologetically. "Yeah." I agreed. "I usually have to go home before you come back, so I guess we haven't crossed paths in a few weeks."

He nodded, his warm eyes focussing on me. "Are you here to see Nana?"

"Yeah." I said, hoping that he wouldn't notice that my voice had gone slightly squeaky.

"I want to thank you, for taking our Nana under your wing" Mr Hanamitsu said. "I think it's mostly thanks to you that she's been able to adapt well to not being able to see Ryuu."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I bit my lip and stayed silent.

"Nana was so fragile, I was worried that Ryuu leaving would hurt her more than help her, but she managed to pull through. I think it's thanks to you coming to visit her every day and sticking up for her at school." Mr Hanamitsu placed one large hand on my shoulder. "My wife and I owe you a lot, for supporting Nana like that."

I looked away. "It was nothing." I said, heart thumping. "Ryuu would have done the same if he was in my shoes."

Mr Hanamitsu grinned even wider. "That's right! I almost forgot, I also need to thank you for being such a valuable friend to my son."

I stared up at him with wide eyes. "Huh?"

Mr Hanamitsu sighed. "I don't know what Ryuu told you of his life before we came here, but even I could tell that he wasn't happy with having to run away and move all the time. He really struggled to connect with the other kids in his schools, and eventually he stopped trying. I was really relieved the day that he brought you home to meet us." He laughed. "Even though you were a pair of troublemakers, I think you really made Ryuu happy, and that's all I cared about."

Mr Hanamitsu stepped away from me and over towards the door. "Just wanted to get that off my chest Kazumi." He said cheerfully. "I have some stuff to do now, but we'll talk again some other time, right?"

I nodded, slightly in awe of this adult who had just poured his heart out to a child. "Sure."

Mr Hanamitsu tilted his head to the door. "That sounds like Nana coming back, I'll be off now." He backed out of the doorway just in time for Nana to come running back in.

She blinked as he walked away down the hall. "Was that my Dad?" She asked, slightly stunned.

"Yeah." I said, still a bit shell-shocked myself from the serious conversation.

"He doesn't know what we're up to, right?" She whispered worriedly.

I shook my head, "He only wanted to talk to me." I explained. "We haven't seen each other in a while."

Nana looked at me doubtfully, but hurriedly pushed the envelope she had run to find into my hands. "Make sure that Nii-san reads it." She said solemnly. "It's important."

I nodded, heart sinking. "I'll make sure I get it to him." I said determinedly. Even if I didn't get to see him, I would pretend that I had. Nana was stressed out worrying about Ryuu. If it came down to it, I would have to lie to her so that she wouldn't lose any more sleep over it.

_Being a stand in big brother sometimes sucks._ I thought tiredly as I waved goodbye to Nana and her Mom. Now I just had to go home and finish packing, then set my alarm for early tomorrow morning. I needed to catch the earliest train possible so that I could maximize my time in Tokyo.

* * *

_Okay, this is a lot longer chapter than last time. Hopefully it's not too long…_

_I just wanted to point out a few things, while I remember. I've tried not to focus on money too much. I know that the Japanese use Yen, but I really don't really know the exchange rate. I used an internet converter to estimate Yen to aprox. NZ$, which is the currency that I know best. I just wanted to show in this chapter that Kazumi is stealing quite a big amount of money from his parents, trying to get enough for a return train ticket. If the amount that I've put down is way too much or way too little to be realistic, I apologise. _


	9. How the plan started off well

I woke up before the alarm the next morning, too nervous to sleep properly. It only took me a few minutes to get dressed and eat breakfast, and soon I was hovering at the front door holding my duffel bag.

At the last second, I realised that I should leave a note of some sort in case my parents got back early and thought that I'd been kidnapped or something. I scrawled a short message about how I was staying over at a friend's house for the night. I didn't mention the friend's name, and I didn't mention when I would be back. In a way it was the truth: I was going to see my friend Ryuu and I would stay probably stay the night… just not at his house.

* * *

It was surprisingly easy to get a ticket to Tokyo at the train station that morning. I was full of the fear that the ticket seller might think I was a runaway and report me to the police, and I had a sob story of visiting my sick aunt ready in case she asked, but she didn't even talk to me apart from asking me whether I wanted one way or return.

I was a ball of nerves right until the train left the station, paranoid that my parents were going to come running up the train platform and drag me off of the train. Things were going too easily for me; it couldn't be that easy for a ten year old kid to run away from home. Surely someone was suspicious of me?

Soon the trip to Tokyo was over, and I was standing on a crowded platform in the busiest city in the world, wondering what on earth to do now. As it turns out, not one person could be bothered to ask a small boy what he was doing all alone on a train to Tokyo. Was it just that people were too trusting? Or was it that people honestly didn't care about others?

I shouldered my duffel bag and started to push my way towards an exit. I figured that the sooner I got moving, the sooner I might see Ryuu again. Using the address that I had used to send letters to Ryuu, I had located Alice Academy on a map of Tokyo that I had found in my father's study. It wasn't too far from the train station, and I could probably keep my bearings better if I stuck to the main streets, so I decided not to take another train. The walk seemed like a good idea after being cooped up in a train for the past few hours.

* * *

Alice Academy had to be the biggest school in Japan, if not the whole world. I had circled the massive wall that blocked off the school twice now, trying to find an opening to get through. Of course, this was my plan B. Plan A was to ask politely if I could meet with Ryuu. The security guard at the gate had laughed in my face and told me to go away.

"Only Alices are allowed past these walls kid." He told me. "Go home."

"What if Ryuu came out to see me?" I suggested.

"No." The guard shook his head. "That's even less likely to happen. Alices don't come out until they graduate, and that's a fact."

I scowled, but knew better than to argue further. This guy was just a lackey, pretty low on the totem pole. He wouldn't dare break the rules to allow one kid to see his best friend, he'd lose his job.

I sighed and kicked a stone down the path. This was starting to look hopeless. Nana had been so confident that a kid might have been able to slip past security here, but neither of us had imagined that such a huge wall would be the main obstacle. I looked up, trying to gauge the distance to the top of the wall… maybe I could climb over it?

What was that? I frowned and narrowed my eyes, trying to get a closer look. At the very top of the wall was what looked like another, slightly opaque, wall that curved up and away like a giant fishbowl that topped the academy. It would have been invisible but for the slight yellow sheen it had, as well as the frequent gold sparks that it threw off. Obviously the giant wall wasn't the only thing stopping me from getting in.

Was there any point in trying to get over the wall? From what I could see, it looked like an impossible task. Like it or not, this wall looked like the end of the road for me. I sighed and turned away, scratching my head as I tried to figure out the best way back to the train station, if I hurried, I could get the last train home.

"_Make sure that Nii-san reads it, it's important."_

Nana's hopeful face flashed into my mind, and I thought about the letter that was tucked into my inner jacket pocket. I clenched my fists. There was no way I could go home without at least trying to get over the wall. I'd never be able to look Nana in the eye if I wimped out here. I stared up at the yellow wall, examining it closely. There had to be some sort of weakness, every wall has a chink in it.

I began to jog alongside the wall, searching the yellow wall for any kind of different surface: a dent, a scratch, anything. Sweat began to run down my back as I desperately pushed on.

"I can't give up." I told myself. "There has to be a way in."

There! A few metres away! There was a shallow hole in the yellow wall! I almost yelled out loud with glee as I sprinted to stand beneath it. From what I could see of the faint wall, it was a round hole just big enough for a child to fit through. If I could climb the wall, I might be able to squeeze through the hole.

I rubbed my hands together and looked around nervously. This part of the wall was a back street of Tokyo, practically deserted. There were no guards to be seen at all. I quickly began to shimmy up the wall, using the cracks in the bricks as handholds. My heart pounded as I climbed higher and higher. Heights had never agreed with me much, and for some reason I couldn't get the image of me falling and splattering onto the concrete street below out of my head.

Soon I reached the top of the wall, and found myself face to face with the yellow barrier. From this point it looked even more yellow, but I could clearly see through it to the school grounds beyond. The school looked even bigger from this view, most of it appearing to be forest and parklands. It looked more like a nature reserve than a prestigious academy.

The hole was right in front of me, and I was relived to find that it was actually a bit bigger up close than it had looked from down on the ground. Gingerly, I began to wriggle forward through the hole. My head was fully through when I made the mistake of touching it. My left arm brushed past the edge of the hole, and I almost bit my tongue from the shock: the barrier was electrically charged.

"Great…" I muttered. "That's just my luck." Nevertheless I kept wriggling forward, carefully avoiding touching the barrier again.

Twenty minutes later I dropped down from the top of the wall and into a nice comfy bush. I had successfully made my way inside the academy.

Now what?

I tried to think back to the view of the buildings from the fence, picturing the layout of the school in my mind. From what I could tell, there were three main buildings. I would bet anything that the largest one would belong to administration. Alice academy was an organisation with many bonds to the outside world; they would need a large headquarters to deal with that fact. That left the other two buildings. I had two different theories. One: That the largest building held the high school and middle school classrooms and dormitories, while the smaller one was the elementary school premises, or two: That the larger building was the classrooms for everyone while the smaller building was the dormitories. It was an interesting dilemma. If I chose the wrong building to go looking for Ryuu in, I could get caught and thrown out of the Academy before I even got to see my friend. I had to be very careful about this.

First things first though, I had to find my way through this forest to the buildings. Luckily I had bought my scout knife with me, which contained a small compass, so I would be able to keep a constant direction if I used that. I sighed and started digging around in my pocket for the scout knife, knowing that I had a long journey ahead of me.


	10. How we became reunited

By the time that I caught sight of the school buildings, the sun was over halfway across the sky, and I was starving. I found a chocolate bar in my pocket, but apart from that I had eaten nothing since I had left home that morning. I eyed some berries hanging off of a bush, but knew better than to try a taste. Who knew whether they were edible or not?

The school buildings were quite impressive, looking more like a collection of stately manors than educational buildings. As far as I could see, there was a lot of marble and not a lot the regular wood that went into most of the schools that I had seen over my life. I wondered if the spectacular buildings were part of the government funding. I found it hard to believe that one school could afford such stuff.

I still had no clue about what building to approach in order to try and find Ryuu. The situation was impossible. I decided to sit at the edge of the forest, hidden from the view of any people who may pass by and wait for a clue as to what each of the buildings contained. I settled myself in a spot up a tree where I could see the back of the smallest building, hoping that I could glimpse someone coming out of the back door.

"OUT!" I almost fell out of the tree as the back door banged open to reveal the tall imposing figure of an adult. I watched, dumbfounded, as he pushed a child out of the door. "Sit out here and reflect on your actions!" He ordered the boy before turning and slamming back into the building, leaving the kid to sit cross legged on the grass with a pissed off expression on his face.

My eyes widened. I knew that pissed off expression very well. There was no way that I could possibly be this lucky, right?

I dropped out of the tree, skinning my knee on the rough bark. I didn't care about that though, I rushed out of the edge of the forest and into the clearing behind the school building.

"Ryuu?" I called hesitantly.

The boy looked up from the grass, mouth hung open in gobsmacked silence. His wide amber eyes bore into me. There was no mistaking it: it was my best friend.

"K…Kazumi!" He stuttered, climbing explosively to his feet. "What are you _doing_ here?"

I grinned. "Nana asked me to go, since she couldn't." I told him.

The colour drained from his face. "Nana… is she… did she…?" He looked like he was going to faint.

I ran to him, not being able to bear hovering at the edge of the woods anymore. As we stood face to face, I knew that it was the right decision to come to the Academy. The look on Ryuu's face told me the truth; he had not received any of the letters Nana or I had sent. He had no clue about what was happening outside his new school.

"Kazumi… Tell me, is Nana okay?" Ryuu begged.

I nodded as hard as I could. "She's fine now." I told him hastily. "She doesn't even need to go to the hospital anymore, just to the clinic for some check-ups every now and then."

Ryuu started to shake. "She's really better again?" His eyes were hopeful, sad and filled with disbelief. He couldn't even believe in what I was saying.

"Ryuu, Nana is fine. She's even started going to school properly again." I fumbled at my jacket pocket. "Here. She wrote this for you." I pushed Nana's letter into his trembling hands, a weight lifted from my chest. I had done what I had set out to do; I had delivered Nana's words to her big brother.

Ryuu stared down at the envelope, tracing the letters that Nana had painstakingly printed, and then he began to cry, tears of shocked joy rippling down his face.

"This can't be real." He muttered. "It's not real."

I punched him hard in the shoulder. "Feel real now?" I asked wryly.

Ryuu stared at me for a long moment before he burst out in hysterical laughter. "Okay. You're real; no one could fake Kazumi like that."

"I'm glad I convinced you I wasn't a fake." I rolled my eyes. "You have no idea what I've been through today."

Ryuu froze. "Yeah… about that." He turned to look at me curiously. "How did you get in here? There's no way they let you in through the main gate, and the barrier is impenetrable."

I frowned at him. "I just looked for a gap in the yellow stuff, then climbed the wall up to that point and wriggled through. It wasn't that hard, once I figured out the trick."

"Yellow stuff?" Ryuu repeated, obviously confused. "But the barrier is…"

"Hanamitsu-kun?"

Ryuu grabbed my wrist in panic. "Shit!" he hissed. "We can't let them catch you!" He tugged me towards the forest at a run.

"Hanamitsu-kun, sensei told me to tell you to come inside now." A girl came around the corner of the building, her silky straight blonde hair swaying as she skipped to her own beat. "He says that you should have reflected…" She stopped short in her sentence as she caught sight of the two of us, mouth dropping open in quiet shock.

"_Hanamitsu-kun_." She breathed.

Ryuu slapped his forehead and dropped my wrist to run towards the girl. "It's not what it looks like!" He frantically told her. "Just go back inside and tell Sensei that I ran off again and you couldn't find me."

The girl raised her eyebrows at Ryuu. "If it's not what it looks like, then what is it?" She asked dryly. "I mean, to me it looks like a boy from the outside has broken into the academy, and from the way that you panicked when I came around the corner, I'd say that he's your friend, and you really don't want him to get caught."

Ryuu opened his mouth and then shut it with a click, grinding his teeth together irritably. "Then it is exactly what it looks like." He admitted grudgingly. "You're not going to tattle, are you?" He glared at her with flashing eyes, like he was daring her to try.

The girl sighed. "Why would I do that?" She said. "I could make you turn yourselves in with no effort at all."

Ryuu held one hand out to her, fingers splayed, like he was going to slap her.

The girl shrugged. "But I'm not going to do that either. It looks like more fun to help you out this time." She grinned, and this time I saw a slight twitch in the corner of her mouth that implied that she was slightly more evil than her benign appearance let on.

Ryuu let his hand drop to the ground. "Whatever." He grunted. "You just want to keep this to yourself so that you can blackmail me later."

The girl ignored him, now turning her attention to me. "What's your name?" She asked in earnest, blinking very big blue eyes at me.

"Uh…" I trailed off. Ryuu glared at me as if he didn't want me to talk to her. It was probably better to let this one slide. "Um…"

"Just go away Mika." Ryuu said hastily, turning away. "I can deal with this."

"How are you going to get him out of here when every single one of your own escape attempts have ended in failure?"

Ryuu flushed, whether in anger or embarrassment I don't know. He raised his hand up again but let it drop to his side almost immediately, sighing. "What do _you_ propose we do?" He asked tiredly.

Mika grinned. "I am so glad you asked!" She clapped her hands together. "As it turns out, I have an excellent plan to help get your friend out of here." She turned to me, cocking her head to the side as she smiled at me. "Just get out the way that you got in!"

Ryuu and I stared blankly at her. "Thanks a lot genius!" Ryuu scoffed. "That was a great help… not!"

"Uh… Ryuu?"

"What?" Ryuu glanced back at me, eyes still gleaming in annoyance.

"Why do you want to get rid of me so quickly? I only just got here." It was hard to keep the hurt out of my voice. Ryuu and I had not seen each other in over a year, and all he had done so far is question me about his little sister and worry about how I was going to leave. It was like he was shooing me out the door only minutes after arrival.

Ryuu slumped. "Sorry." He said. "But it is important that you get out of here before anyone discovers you. Breaking into this place isn't like breaking into any other school; I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"Bad…?" I asked. "Like what, I'm just a kid, what could they possibly…" I trailed off, unnerved by the dark looks that Ryuu and Mika were now flashing towards me.

"It's best if we just get you out of here." Mika said curtly. "After all, things can get dangerous around here for Non-Alices really quickly."

Ryuu shuddered. "Yeah, and if the teachers find you they're going to…"

"Going to what, Ryuu-kun?" An amused female voice echoed throughout the clearing. "Freak out?"

All three of us jumped, turning around to stare in shock at the tall woman hovering above our little group. I felt slightly dazzled as I looked her up and down, gulping. She was a slightly plump woman with long curly brown hair done up in a messy side ponytail. Staring down at us with her glistening ice grey eyes, I felt a shiver running down my spine. Despite her almost motherly clothes of a trim flowered skirt and a fluffy pink cardigan, this woman did not look like the type to back down. A threatening aura of dark grey mist seemed to float off of her.

"Uh… Hello Takao-sensei…" Mika started to wring her hands nervously. "We were just… just…"

"Plotting something." Takao-sensei smiled. "I can see that." She looked around our little group with raised eyebrows. "When I came out to see what Ryuu was up to now, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting this." Her eyes lingered on me, and I could sense her confusion. "Who are you boy?"

Ryuu jumped in front of me like he was diving to take a bullet. "He's no one really, just an illusion… some sempai from my Alice class have been teasing me lately." He laughed nervously.

Takao-sensei sighed. "I find that very unlikely." She told Ryuu firmly. "But… I have to admit, the possibility that anyone breached our little electric barrier is even slimmer."

"Electric barrier?" I repeated, lifting up my arm to examine the angry red burn mark on my arm. "That thing's a menace."

All three of my companions turned to stare at me in absolute disbelief.

"So you did come through the barrier!" Mika exclaimed. "How did you do it? You're not an Alice, right?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm not. But it doesn't take a genius to crawl through a gap. The hard part was actually climbing the brick wall; I thought I was going to fall off and die."

"Blabbermouth." Ryuu huffed.

"Huh?" I snapped. "What's that supposed to mean, moron?!"

"Exactly what I said!" Ryuu yelled right back. "You were supposed to play along with the whole illusion lie, not start admitting that you broke in!"

I rolled my eyes. "Please, she totally didn't bite. That lie was a complete dud. I thought it was best that we just cut our losses there."

Ryuu gritted his teeth. "And that's why you should really let me do the talking…" He muttered. "Cut our losses… When did you become such a wimp?"

"Cut it out boys!" Takao-sensei's voice cracked like a whip. A hand like a claw came down on my shoulder, and I felt myself get dragged back slightly.

"Sensei?!" I heard Ryuu protest. "You're going to rat us out?"

Takao-sensei sighed, and her grip slackened. "I want to let you off, I do, but it's not safe to try to get across the barrier again." Her face softened. "I'd be a pretty awful teacher if I just let you try and do something so dangerous again."

Ryuu huffed, but didn't say anything. I don't think he was overly fond of getting me to brave the barrier either.

"You two head back to class now." Takao made a shooing motion with her free hand. "I'll take care of this."

Mika looked at her suspiciously; Ryuu looked at her in downright horror. "I'm staying with Kazumi until he gets out of here safely." He told the teacher stubbornly, eyes flashing.

"I'll be okay Ryuu." I said quickly. "Just go back to class." I looked away. "There's no sense in you getting into any more trouble over me."

"But…"

Mika grabbed his ear and started dragging him back to the school building. "Listen to someone for once numbskull, the kid is actually right. Believe it or not, things can get worse for you from here."

With this, Ryuu admitted defeat, waving regretfully at me before he turned and ran after Mika, who had let go of his ear and was now heading into the school building. This left me all alone with Takao, wondering what was going to happen now.

"I guess I'll take you to the staffroom so we can sort out this mess." Takao sighed. "As much as I want to just take you to the gate and wave goodbye to you, there needs to be an inquiry as to how exactly you got in here."

"I just climbed the fence." I muttered as we began to walk off past the building that Ryuu and Mika had disappeared into.

"That's the problem." Takao sighed. "Do you know how many people have tried to climb that fence over the years?"

I cocked my head to the side in question.

"Too many to count." Takao said. "Do you know how many of them ever succeeded in climbing over that wall?"

I shook my head.

"One." Takao told me. "You. A ten year old kid without an Alice."

I gulped. Suddenly I felt like I wasn't going to be able to leave for a while yet.

* * *

_This is quite long, isn't it? I don't think I realised how long until I finished, but there's no easy place to split it up, so I guess it has to be all one chapter. Sorry if it gets long winded! But on the bright side, we've actually made it to Gakuen Alice, the main point of the story! From now on, things are going to pick up I think. Please read and review, I love when people tell me what they think, even if the review seems bad. I know that I'm not the best writer, and I'm writing this fan fiction in order to get better. All of your comments help._


	11. How I met a lie detector

I opened my eyes to see a white room all around me; white walls, white floor, white sheets. The only thing that wasn't white was a large silver mirror on the wall opposite to me. I blinked, eyes watering as I sat up.

_What happened?_ I wondered. I remembered meeting with Ryuu, giving him Nana's letter, getting caught by Takao sensei…

"Where am I?" I wondered out loud, staring around the room for some sort of clue. There were no windows, and the door was hard to pick out, seeing as it was all white as well. I swung my feet out of bed and padded over to the door to try the handle. It was locked. I knocked on it, thinking half-heartedly that someone would come if I signalled that I was awake. No such luck. As I turned to go back to the bed, I caught side of something strange out of the corner of my eye. Just beyond the huge mirror I could see a slight hint of colour, like something was pulsing with light just behind the mirror. I could see blue light, green light… and dark grey light.

Oh… I turned my back on the mirror with a scowl. It wasn't a mirror at all; it was a one way window. There were people on the other side watching me, and I had a pretty good idea of who one of them was. The grey light was unmistakable, even though I had only gotten the chance to see it once.

I sat back against the headboard of the bed, humming to myself. From where I was sitting I could clearly see my reflection, but I could also see the glowing colours more easily. The green one moved up and down the mirror, like the person in the next room was pacing back and forth. The grey one didn't move at all, while the blue one seemed to fidget, twitching now and then. Sooner or later one of these people would come in to talk to me, I just had to wait until then.

In the mean time I pondered what had happened to me after Ryuu and Mika had left Takao-sensei and me. I remembered vaguely walking into another building, then waiting in a corridor as Takao went into an office of some sort. She had come out ten minutes later with an older looking man with a strange beard. Green. He was green. I focussed in on the green blob once again, putting two and two together. So that old man was the green light.

Takao and the old man had then taken me to another bigger room, this one filled with adults. We only meant to pass through, but we were stopped almost immediately by curious questions by the teachers. Everyone wanted to know who I was. While Takao and the old man were answering questions, they seemed to forget about me a bit.

I just stood and stared at the swarm of people around me. Every single one of them seemed to have their own colour. To me, who before today had only ever seen one person with an aura like that, my senses started to get overwhelmed. My eyes began to water as they struggled to take in every colour of the spectrum that seemed to make the room pulse. The light made me dizzy, and my head began to spin, eardrums throbbing. Still the adults tried to step closer to me, and my vision went blurry. A hand I thought was Takao's tried to take me by the shoulder to steady me on my feet, but her grey light was too much; it was right in my face and it made my head throb even more.

"Stop it!" I choked out, tears streaming down my face. "Don't touch me!" I couldn't see anything else but the colours now, and I started to panic. I tried to shove the hands back, but ended up tripping over my own feet as I stepped backwards. "Don't…" Then the colours winked out, and black was the only thing I saw.

My eyes started to tear up a little even now as I thought back on all the different lights. No wonder I had passed out; seeing all that was probably not unlike sticking a person in a room full of different flashing police Christmas lights, then turning the main light switch on and off continuously as well. I wondered if I had had some sort of epileptic fit. I would probably have to go to a doctor when I got home.

"Hey kid."

While I had been thinking back to what had happened, someone had used the white door to come quietly into the room. I looked him up and down, saying nothing.

"You're just a kid too." I said finally.

The tall boy laughed, throwing his head to the side to get his white bangs out of his long face. He didn't look that much older than me, only fourteen or fifteen and dressed in blue tartan school pants and a black blazer with blue trim. He wore glasses that looked slightly tinted, like they were halfway between sunglasses and normal lenses. A sliver hoop twinkled from the side of his left ear.

"True." The boy admitted. "I'm only in middle school, but I'm still older than you, therefore I am allowed to call you a kid."

I arched my eyebrows at him, trying to display on my face how impatient I was for him to get to the point.

"Sorry." The boy held up one hand. It seems he got the message. "I just have some questions for you." He took a seat in a chair that was placed conveniently next to the bed where I sat. "Do you mind?"

I rolled my eyes. "Even if I do mind, I think you're going to ask me questions anyway, so I might as well get this over with." I swivelled so that I was sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing the boy. "But first… Who are you?"

The boy grinned. "Sorry, forgot about that part." He held out his hand for me to shake. "My name is Fujimaru Nakasaki, call me Naka."

I took the hand gingerly and shook it. "Kazumi Yukihira." I told him. "It's nice to meet you."

Naka smiled down at me as he ruffled my hair, making my bed head even worse. "Let's start with the basics, shall we Kazumi?" He said. "Why did you come here to Alice Academy?"

I looked away. "My best friend is a student here." I confessed. "I was worried that he wasn't getting any of our letters, so I came to see him."

Naka narrowed his eyes at me, and with a start I realised that he had taken his glasses off to do so. His eyes were a warm brown, but as I looked into them I could see a scrutiny in them that unnerved me slightly.

"Okay." He nodded, all smiles again. "And how did you get into the Academy?"

"Huh?" I frowned at me. "Didn't I already tell this to the other teacher?"

He nodded. "I know. I just want you to tell me personally."

I sighed. "It really wasn't that hard." I said. "When the guard at the gates told me to go away I walked around the wall, looking for a way in. Then I eventually came to a spot where there was a small hole in the electric barrier thing, so I climbed up the wall and crawled through the hole. I then dropped into a bush on the other side."

Naka was frowning at me now, eyebrows furrowed, like he was trying to figure me out. "Hey… Kazumi?"

"Yeah?"

"You told Takao-sensei that you weren't an Alice, right?" He looked at me, gaze intense. "Were you telling the truth?"

"Yes." I told him.

"You don't have an Alice?" He repeated.

"That is correct."

"Are you _positive_…?" Naka continued.

"I've already told you I'm not an Alice, right?" I said angrily. "Why do you keep asking the same question over and over?"

Naka blinked in shock, then shook his head. "Sorry. I just kept thinking that if I asked again I might get a different result." He sighed. "Looks like you're telling me the truth. Squeaky clean."

"Telling the truth…" I repeated slowly. "What are you? A human lie detector?"

Naka laughed. "Yeah. That's why they bought me in to talk to you." He confessed. "My Alice lets me know when the people around me are lying and when they're telling the truth."

"Wow." I leaned back on my hands. "That's so cool. I wish I could do that."

Naka raised his eyebrows. "You really want to know when people are lying to you? I hate it. When I was little, it meant that my parents couldn't lie to me about anything, so things like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy went out of the window pretty fast."

I nodded. "I suppose, that does seem sucky. I guess you don't get many surprise birthday parties either, right?"

Naka chuckled. "Yeah, there's not too many people who can pull the wool over my eyes, I can see a liar a mile away."

"How do you do it?" I asked curiously. "See a lie on someone? Are you like those guys on TV that can tell from people's body language?"

Naka shook his head. "Nah, it's way simpler than that for me." He explained. "I just have to look at a person as they are speaking. If they start to get this white glow around them, then they are lying. The brighter the glow, the further they are from the truth."

I stared at him in shock. "They… glow?"

"Yup." He said. "But you didn't glow at all, so I guess you really did scale that wall without an Alice." He whistled slowly. "I have to admit kid, I'm impressed. No one has got through Hii-sama's barrier before, and I mean no one."

"Glow…" I repeated.

"Hey, kid? Are you even listening? I'm giving out some rare praise here!"

I looked up to fix him with my solid blue eyes. "Red." I said absently. "Like a dark red… what do you call that?"

"Huh?" Naka stared at me like I was from another planet. "Maroon… I suppose."

"Maroon." I repeated, nodding to myself. "I guess that fits you."

"Fits me…?"

"Ryuu is similar to you." I told the older boy. "He's like an orange brown colour; Amber."

Naka's eyes widened. "Wait… You see people that glow too?"

I looked away. "I'm completely nuts, right?" I sighed. "Forget I said anything, it's stupid."

Naka stood up abruptly. "No! Not at all… It's just…" He paused to scratch his head. "How did you say you found that hole in the barrier again?"

"I circled the wall, looking up at the electric barrier until I found it." I told him.

Naka shook his head. "No, I mean, how did you know that the hole was there?"

"I… I… just saw it." Was this a trick question?

Naka huffed in frustration. "That barrier is invisible!" He told me, "How can you see a hole in something invisible?"

This was definitely a trick question. "Invisible?" I snorted. "That thing was bright yellow! How could anyone miss it, even if it is a little see-through?"

Naka's wide eyes blinked once, twice, three times. "You're telling the truth…" He trailed off. "That's not a lie…" He sat back down in his chair to look at me with a gobsmacked look on his face. "What exactly can you see?" He asked in awe.

I looked over at the mirror. All three of the glowing blobs were motionless in the room next door now. Obviously I had done something weird. I never should have mentioned the colours thing to Naka. I lost my head just because I thought he was similar to me.

"Hey, Kazumi…" Naka spoke again in a soft voice. "You said that I glow, right?"

I turned back to look at him passively. "Yes, you glow." I confirmed.

"What colour?"

"Hmmm? Uh… that red colour, maroon…" I frowned. "Maybe it's a bit lighter than that."

"You said that your friend Ryuu glowed as well, what colour was he?" Naka continued. I could see an idea was forming in his head.

"Amber." I said confidently.

"Have you seen anyone else glowing?" Naka pushed further. "Anyone at all? Back home, here…?"

"You mean like the three people watching us from behind the mirror?" I asked innocently. "I know the grey person is that teacher called Takao, but I don't know the names of the green and blue people."

Naka sat back, hands in his pockets. His mouth twitched, like he was trying not to laugh out loud. "Fancy that." He said mildly. "Is that why you fainted earlier? I hear you were in the staffroom. Was all the light too much for you?"

I nodded slowly. "Why do you care about all this?" I asked. "My hallucinations really aren't that interesting."

Naka stopped smiling, face suddenly turned serious. "They aren't hallucinations, I don't think." He said solemnly. "I think you have an Alice that you don't know about."

"An… Alice?" I repeated. "Like Ryuu?"

"Your Alice is more like mine." He confessed. "You can see things that other people can't."

I rolled my eyes. "Great. So I see lots of people that glow for no apparent reason. That's super useful." My voice dripped with sarcasm.

Naka started rummaging around in his blazer pocket. "These people that glow, they're not random, and I think I have a way to prove it to you." He carefully extracted a small leather pouch from his pocket and opened up the drawstring, tipping a red stone into his palm. "Does this colour look familiar?" He asked, holding the stone up to the light.

I looked between him and the stone rapidly. "It's the maroon colour." I breathed.

Naka closed his fist on the stone slowly. "This is my Alice stone." He explained. "It's basically a piece of my Alice that I extracted so that I can let other people use it. If someone else holds onto it, they can see liars in the same way I can."

"So what does that mean about my… Alice…?" I wanted to know.

"I think that your Alice is similar to mine; we both use ours to identify people, but you can see something different to me." Naka shook his head like he couldn't believe what he was about to say. "I think you can see other people's Alices."

"Huh?" I shook my head. "No way. That's impossible." I stated.

"You should take Naka seriously." The door to the room opened to admit Takao into the room. She walked over to reveal the grey stone in her palm to the two of us.

"Dark grey…" I muttered. "Is that your Alice stone?"

The woman nodded, a quiet smile on her face. "You gave me quite a shock back there, picking me out from behind the mirror. The other two look even worse, you haven't even met Kagami-sensei properly, yet you predicted the colour of her Alice stone perfectly."

"So all of your Alice stones are the colours that I can see?" I mused. "That's weird."

"Weird?" Naka scoffed. "I think this is cool! This means that you're one of us!"

"One of you?" I wasn't sure where this was going. "You mean the colours I see make me an Alice too?"

"Yes." Naka said joyfully.

I nodded. "Okay." I said. "Right." I looked from Takao to Naka and back again. "I just have one more question for you guys about all of this."

"Fire away." Takao said coolly.

"What exactly is an Alice?"

* * *

_YAY! My school exams are over, so now I am officially on Holiday! Hopefully I'll have a lot more time to write leading up to Christmas, so expect some more chapters soon!_


	12. How I became an Alice Academy student

"What exactly is an Alice?"

Naka gave out a stunned laugh, Takao just stood there, frozen to the spot. "Is he serious?" her head turned robotically towards Naka.

"He's telling the truth!" Naka spluttered.

"You came all the way to Tokyo, broke into Alice Academy, and you don't even know what Alices are?!" Takao asked incredulously.

I shrugged. "I guessed pretty early on in this conversation that Alice doesn't actually mean genius." I told the two of them. "From the things that Naka has said so far, I've nailed down the fact that having an 'Alice' means something along the lines of having a unique 'ability'. Am I correct?"

Naka was still laughing in shock, so it was Takao that replied. "More or less." She agreed. "Being an Alice means that you have some sort of supernatural ability that most other people do not possess. Clairvoyance and teleportation are quite common ones, but there are other unusual powers out there, like your ability to see Alices, and Naka's ability to see when a person is lying."

"Oh… okay." I nodded as I processed that tiny bit of data. "Well, that made things a lot easier to understand." I said absentmindedly.

"I can believe you didn't know what an Alice was…" Naka muttered forlornly. "I can't believe…"

I ignored him and turned my attention back to Takao. "Naka's Alice is to see lies. What can you do?" I asked her.

Takao smiled. "How do you think I snuck up on you kids earlier?" She asked playfully. "I have the invisibility Alice."

"This place sounds crazy. I suddenly miss my school back at home." Guiltily, I suddenly realised something. "I just remembered. I have a history assignment due on Monday, I'm never going to finish it in time now."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore I suppose." Takao smiled down at me. "I don't think anyone will disagree with your enrolment here." She started to head back to the door. "I'll just go and get you a uniform."

"Wait… what?!" I exclaimed, but it was too late. Takao was already gone. I whipped around to look at Naka again. "What on earth just happened?" I asked slowly.

Naka patted me on the head gently. "You are most definitely an Alice." He said solemnly. "Just like Takao-Sensei and me, and just like your friend Ryuu. That means that you belong at this school."

"But… what about home? My parents? This is too sudden; they're going to be so mad at me!"

Naka looked a little sad for a moment. "Kazumi, this may be a little bit hard to take, but once you are discovered as an Alice, you come to school here as soon as possible. This process is instant. Any Alice that turns up at our gates gets enrolled immediately and can start classes as soon as they don the uniform."

"So, does that mean…?"

Naka's eyes looked haunted as he looked straight at me. "It means that as of now, you are an official student here. You won't be able to leave and go back to your parents."

"But…" I could feel tears start to well up. Even though I had a bad relationship with my parents, that didn't mean that I never wanted to see them again. Besides, there was still Nana to worry about.

"It's not all bad." Naka cut me off. "You can still send letters, and this place is actually really fun once you get used to things." He winked at me. "You'll like it here. It's just hard the first few months."

"I guess so…" I trailed off.

"Kazumi!" Takao burst back into the room, holding a bundle of clothes. "Here it is!" She smiled as she tossed the bundle towards me. "Hurry up and get changed. If we hurry we can make it to third period class." She turned to leave the room again, and Naka stood up to follow her.

"Third period?" I repeated dumbly. "How long was I asleep?"

Takao popped her head back into the room. "You managed to miss a day." She said cheerfully. "It's about ten thirty on Monday morning right now; just so you know."

I had to sit back down on the bed very quickly right then, spine turning to jelly. "My parents are going to kill me." I whimpered.

Takao flapped a hand at me. "Just hurry up and get changed. I don't have all day." She popped out of the room again all too quickly.

I sighed and glanced over to the mirror again. I could see no lights there anymore, so there must not me anyone watching me. Turning to the bundle of clothes that the teacher had thrown at me I hastily pulled the red tartan shorts on, thankful that she had included some of my own clean underwear. She must have my bag somewhere, and I made a mental note to ask her what she had done with it. Next I tugged on a white school shirt and the black school cardigan. It was very strange to be putting on a school uniform. Before today, I had thought that I wouldn't get to wear one before middle school. Finally I tugged on the black polished boots and padded over to the closed door. I yanked it open to find Takao and Naka standing there waiting for me patiently.

Naka grinned. "I'm so glad you're not a girl, or I would have missed art class today."

"Let's go." Takao turned to start walking down the corridor.

I hesitated on my first step out of the white room, hovering on the doorstep as a certain thought occurred to me.

Naka stopped and turned to look at me in concern. "Don't worry, it'll be fine." He reassured me, guessing that I was just nervous.

I gulped. "It's not that, not really." I said. "I was just kind of worried about… _that._"

Takao turned around to see what had happened to us. "_That?_" She asked.

I sighed. "You guys are taking me to a class full of kids with Alices, right?"

Naka and Takao nodded, the looks on their faces clearly saying 'duh!' to me.

"What if I faint again?" I pressed on. "I mean. The last time that I went into a room full of Alices, it got so bright that I passed out and slept for over twenty four hours!"

Takao looked like she wanted to kick herself. Naka slapped his forehead rather dramatically.

"Damn." Takao muttered. "We'd better go and find you some Alice restraints for until you learn to control your Alice properly."

"Don't worry about it." Naka waved a hand at her. "I have the perfect thing for him right here." He fished his glasses out from his top blazer pocket and pressed them into my hand. "Try these on and see if they work. They block out most of the light for me, so they might work the same for you."

"But don't you need these yourself?" I frowned.

Naka shook his head. "I mainly wear them out of habit now. I can control my Alice enough that I can switch it on and off at will, dim the glow that I see. I don't really need them anymore."

Carefully I slipped the tinted glasses on and looked around at the slightly darker world.

"Well? Do they work?" Naka asked.

When I looked up at him, I didn't know what to say. Instead of the glowing strands that I used to see floating all around him, flashing into my eyes all the time, I saw next to nothing. All that I could see of his Alice now was a small ball of light that softly shone out from his heart. I turned to Takao, and I was surprised to see that it was much the same in her case. Her grey Alice was tucked up neatly in her chest as well, the dark grey mist was gone.

"Amazing." I exclaimed. "The light is almost gone!"

Naka patted me on the head. "Told you that they would work."

Takao nodded in approval. "Let's go then." She said curtly. "We really need to get there soon so we don't end up interrupting period three class."

Naka and I both hurried to catch up.


	13. How I joined Elementary Class B

Naka peeled away from our little group at the middle sized school building as Takao explained to me that it was the middle school building. It was not combined with the high school like I had thought earlier. The High school building is in a completely different section of the school.

"It's the biggest section, so they were the first to get their new buildings built." Takao explained. "We're in the middle of gradually upsizing our facilities here. Eventually there will be four different sections of the school: High school, Middle School, Elementary school and the administrative offices." We stopped outside the smallest building. "However, for now we are stuck with the buildings we have." She pulled a face. "It's not too bad. The middle school shares some of the dorms that the high school kids left behind when they moved out, so kids don't need to double up in rooms like they used to."

We made our way through the corridors until we eventually stood outside a classroom labelled 'B'. Takao went to open the door, but changed her mind at the last second and turned towards me.

"I almost forgot to give you this." She pressed a star shaped pin into my hand. "When I went to get your uniform I explained to the deputy principal about your Alice and she granted you the rank of a one star. You put the pin on your collar, right here." Takao pointed at my left collar. I hastily stuck the pin on, hoping it didn't look too lopsided. "The last thing you need to know before stepping into this classroom is that this is not your usual school. Things are very crazy here."

"I gathered that this place would be strange." I said. "No use in delaying it much longer." My gut tightened. I had never transferred schools before. What if the other kids all hated me?

"Don't worry. Your friend is in this class, isn't he?" Takano said.

I brightened up._ That's right, Ryuu is here!_ I thought. _This might not be as bad as I thought._

Then the door opened and we went in.

* * *

"Listen up brats!" Takao yelled over the noise.

It was truly as chaotic as Takao had implied. Kids from ages eight to twelve were everywhere. One kid was hanging from the ceiling, another appeared to in the middle of constructing some sort of chemical explosion. Butterflies hovered around a group of girls in the corner, while a group of boys seemed to be setting one of the curtains on fire. However, as soon as Takao started ordering them around, they gradually got quieter and quieter until they all stared at her in silence.

"We have a new student today." Takao announced. "Make him feel welcomed, okay?"

The class had now caught sight of me, and they started to whisper amongst themselves.

Takao beckoned me forward. "This is Kazumi Yukihira…"

CRASH!

"It's that kid from Saturday!" Mika sang out from the front row, pointing straight at me. At the very back of the class, Ryuu had fallen off his chair, staring at me as if I had just come down from the mother ship. The mutters of the people in the class turned into full on conversations, people talking furiously amongst themselves.

Takao ignored all of the noise. "Kazumi will be in class B from now on." She said brightly. "Make sure you take care of him!" She pulled me from the doorway into the centre of the room. "Now, who wants to be his buddy and take care of him for the while?"

Suddenly the room went quiet again and people started to look away. It looks like the buddy job wasn't a sought after position.

Takao scanned the room. "No volunteers?" She noted with a sigh. "Fine, I'll pick one for you…" She looked around the classroom in a slow theatrical sweep. "Up the back, Ryuu, take care of the new kid." She pushed me towards the desks, starting me on the way to the back of the class. "Try not to be a bad influence on him."

The whole class seemed to freeze for a second. "Sensei!" One girl protested. "It's not nice to the new kid to give him to Ryuu!"

"Yeah," Another kid piped up. "Don't pick on Ryuu."

The girl turned angrily around to face the second kid who had spoken. "That's not what I meant!" She snorted. "He doesn't make friends with _anyone_. He's going to be mean!"

Takao rolled her eyes. "Shut it!" She ordered firmly. "This is my last resort here. Ryuu always seems to get into trouble; maybe taking care of Kazumi will do him some good." Takao looked down at her watch. "Right, now behave yourselves until your teacher comes, I have to go now."

"Uh… Takao-sensei…" I started, but she was already gone, the door banging shut behind her.

I stood there as the whole class seemed to stare at curiously. A boy turned to Mika and asked loudly. "You said something about seeing him on Saturday, right Mika?"

"Yup." Mika stood up and flittered over to me. "So you _are_ an Alice." She looked at me from underneath her lashes. "Cool."

"I… uh…" What do I say to these kids? I still wasn't a hundred percent certain what Alices were, now I had to interact with a class full of them. My stomach churned.

"What's your Alice?" A boy with narrow eyes and a pair of red goggles sitting on top of his head pushed to the front to ask.

"It's..."

"Do you know what alice class you're in yet?" A girl with a pink glowing ember in her chest and pigtails to match shoved the boy aside to ask. "I hope that you're in technical… you look interesting."

"Looks like you have your star level already." Mika noted, examining the pin on my collar. "One star…"

"What exactly are star levels?" I asked curiously. "Sensei just gave this to me five minutes ago."

Mika tapped her own three stars on her collar. "It's a measure of how good you are with your studies and Alice control. The lowest is nothing, it's for the little kids, then one star, two star, three star and finally special." Mika paused. "Ryuu really should be the one explaining all this." She glared towards the back of the room, where Ryuu was leaning against the wall looking like he wanted to punch someone.

"Why should I?" He asked airily. "You're doing such a good job already." He looked past Mika to me and his eyes narrowed. He was glaring at me.

And I snapped. What possible reason was there for Ryuu to get angry at me? I gently pushed my way through the group of students surrounding me and made my way to the back of the classroom. Ryuu's eyes never shifted off me the whole time. Suddenly the class was deathly still. They knew that something was about to happen.

"I feel like you have something to say to me?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Ryuu grunted. "Not really." His glare got deeper. "I was just wondering when you were going to tell me that you had an Alice, that's all."

My hands curled up into fists. "Oh… so that's what you're so mad about, Mr 'makes-a-promise- not-to-transfer-then-leaves-anyway'." I looked up dangerously. "Not that you would do anything like that, right?"

Ryuu gulped, "Now… that's not really fair… you're missing the real point here…"

"You're not that guy?" I asked lightly. "Thank god, because now I don't have to look after someone else's distraught sister for almost a year. I don't need to make some sort of impossible promise to her that I'll go to Tokyo to try and see her elder brother or anything, because you're not that guy." My eyes gleamed dangerously. "Right?"

"Uh…"

"Hesitation!" I hit him over the head with a swift Karate chop. "Moron."

Ryuu wilted and slid to the ground. "Sorry… okay?"

Heaving a big sigh, I offered a hand to help him up. "Fine. But I'm not forgetting this easily."

"I think we're almost even actually." Ryuu said stonily. "You never told me you were an Alice."

"You didn't tell me until the absolute last minute either." I reminded him.

Ryuu scowled. "You don't think that was the perfect opening for you? 'Hey, you say you're an Alice? Guess what? I'm one too!'"

Mika danced in between the two of us, grinning her head off. It's nice that someone was having some fun in this situation. I sure as hell wasn't amused.

"Ryuu, what if Kazumi only found out about his Alice recently? I mean, you have been separated for a year." She shrugged. "Just a theory."

I stared at her. Either this chick was smart, or she could read minds. At this point, either scenario seemed likely to me.

Ryuu glared at her. "Butt out." He muttered, not really meaning it. "Is that right?" He asked me.

I just nodded.

"So when did you find out about it?" Mika bounced up and down.

I scratched my head, thinking back. "Uh… about… an hour ago maybe…"

You could have heard a pin drop in that classroom just then.

Ryuu gaped at me. "An hour ago?" He repeated. "Like… as in… sixty minutes… that kind of hour?"

I arched an eyebrow at him. "Is there any other kind of hour?" I wanted to know.

For once Mika didn't look like she had something to say. Goggles kid was muttering in the background, "He's only been an Alice an hour and they've already given him a star rank. That's intense."

"What _is_ your Alice?" The girl with the pink pigtails asked. "It must be incredible if the teachers admitted you here right away."

Great. Now the attention was back on me and my Alice. How should I explain this?

"It's not that very useful at all, I don't think." I waved my hands at them in panic. "It's no big deal."

Ryuu whacked me on the head. "Are you going to tell us or not?" he asked. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll go first. I have the Telekinesis Alice." He nodded. "Now you."

"I have the human pheromone Alice!" Mika piped up.

The others seemed to take their lead from her. Goggles boy cleared his throat. "My name is Goma, and I have the speed alice."

"My name is Aoki, and I have the sewing Alice." Pink pigtails grinned at me.

One by one the rest of the class introduced themselves and told me about their weird and wonderful skills. One boy could walk through solid objects; another had incredible hearing and sight, there were a couple of kids who could tell the future, not to mention the kid who teleported across the classroom to tell me his name.

Finally it was my turn. I gulped nervously, not one other person in the class seemed to have a talent even remotely like mine. What if they didn't believe that I could see Alices? There was no real way to prove that what I saw was that. I could be a really well informed kid who was using some good knowledge about Alices to fake having one of his own. The thought made my head spin.

"Well, Sensei and Naka-Sempai said earlier that my Alice was called the Detection Alice." I told the waiting crowd.

They nodded, but I could see the blank looks. They had never heard of it before.

"What does that do?" Mika pushed me further.

I leaned my head back. "Like I said, it's not very useful. It means that I can see Alices."

"See Alices?" Aoki murmured. "So what exactly do you see?"

"People who have Alices glow different colours in my vision." I explained. "For example, you."

Aoki looked at me in confusion. "What about me?"

"You're pink." I told her.

She blinked at me. "Pink…?" She shook her head. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I shrugged. "From what they were telling me earlier, it seems that I see Alices in the colour of a person's Alice stone."

A grin began to spread across Aoki's face. "You mean that my stone is pink?" She asked in glee. "That's so cool!"

"What colour am I?" Mika asked.

"Purple." I told her.

She whistled. "I'm impressed." She told me. "I already know that my stone is purple, you must be telling the truth!"

Ryuu looked at me, a weird look in his eyes.

"You're like an Amber colour, if that's what you're wondering." I told him over the clamour of the other kids; they all wanted me to tell them what colour they were. It seems like Alice stones were important enough to make a fuss over what colour they were.

He shook his head. "It's not that." He said. "I just feel uneasy."

I frowned. "Why?"

"I just feel like that Alice may be more trouble than it's worth." He confessed. "After all, now you won't be able to go home at all, and they restrict your mail. This place is dangerous, and I dragged you right into this mess."

I had to elbow him in the ribs at that point. "Are you forgetting who decided to come here in the first place?" I reminded him. "I don't mind being stuck here, school was boring with you gone. The only thing that I'll miss is Nana. She'll be furious that both of us are gone now."

Ryuu's face fell. "True. I'm the worst big brother in the history of mankind. Not only have I abandoned her, the stand in brother I picked out for her turned out to be another Alice!"

"Suppose we just have to deal with that now." I said mildly.

"I suppose we do."

* * *

_It has been a LONG time since I last posted a chapter for this, and for that I'm really sorry. I've probably lost any followers that I might have managed to scrounge up by now… (She thinks back guiltily to all the spare time that she's had up her sleeve over the past couple of weeks and wonders why she didn't just sit down and write the damn chapter already.)_

_To make up for my total failure at time management and self control, this chapter is quite a large one. Though… that doesn't mean that it's quality… I did try my best however. If you like the chapter, that's good! I can sleep easy tonight. If you didn't… bummer…_

_I'll delude myself into thinking that everyone loved it; it'll be easier on my heart!_


	14. How I became special

It was surprisingly easy to fit into the class, they seemed to welcome almost anyone as long as they were Alices. It must be like the saying; birds of a feather flock together. Good thing too. The elementary school was so tiny that a single argument between friends could probably tear the whole school section apart. Class B, the class that I was in, was the biggest of the classes, teaching all the eight year olds to the twelve year olds. Even with that variety of ages, there were still only fifteen in the class. Class A, for the little kids, was even smaller, with only seven in the class. What surprised me was that the youngest person in that class was the ripe age of three. It seemed that catering to toddlers was also something that the academy was prepared to do.

"The idea is that as soon as a kid is recognised as an Alice, they enrol in the Academy." Ryuu explained to me. "Age doesn't matter."

This seemed a little harsh to me. A child brought into the Academy at three probably wouldn't remember their parent's faces by the time they graduate. This place was almost like an orphanage; parents didn't exist here, the Academy was our mother.

The middle school and high school fared a little better with their student numbers, as most children with more subtle Alices discovered them as they became teenagers. Even with the high numbers of the high school, the Academy still only had a roll of ninety students. I hadn't realised that I had joined what seemed to be a very rare group of people. Japan had a population of millions, and only ninety young people had been singled out from the rest to attend classes here.

Ryuu and Mika both explained to me how the Academy worked. I found out new things about it almost every five minutes the first week I was there. It was enough to make my head spin, and that was without the harder schoolwork that the Academy taught us. Ryuu sat next to me in class, just like he had back at our old school. I couldn't believe my luck that I had my best friend back.

Mika was the one who explained about the Alice classes as we walked over to the middle school one afternoon. Ryuu wasn't with us, because he was in the Latent ability class. His telekinesis fell into the category of traditional and common powers. A lot of the kids that I had met over the past few days were Latent type as well. Others in the class B, such as Aoki, the girl with the pink hair, were in the Technical ability class, where people had Alices that were involved in creating and making things. There were other kids that belonged in the Somatic class, because their Alices directly involved them with living systems, such as changing their physical appearance or influencing other people with powerful pheromones.

Mika had stopped in her explanation at that point, seeing my frown. "What is it?" She asked.

"If you have a pheromone Alice, why are you in a different class?" I asked, totally baffled.

She laughed. "I'm in Special because my Alice is a little _too_ powerful." She told me. "Special is a bit like a dumping ground for Alices that don't really fit in with the others."

I raised my eyebrows. "Dumping ground huh?" I repeated.

Mika suddenly seemed to realise what she had said. "That doesn't mean that people with Special type Alices are useless or anything. We just don't fit in with the rest of the groups, so they stuck us in a little group all by ourselves." She stopped outside the door to a classroom with a big 'S' painted on the front. "It's actually rather fun here." She pushed the door open wide, and suddenly we were covered in confetti.

"Welcome to Special!" the ragged looking group yelled.

Mika tugged me into the room. "Like I said, we're the smallest group, so we don't get new kids very often." She flourished at the decorations around the room. "So we thought that we'd throw a party!"

Naka-sempai grinned from the back of the class, winking at me. It seems that he was the reason that they were so prepared to welcome such a sudden transfer student. Standing next to him was a girl with bright blonde hair and a mole under her left eye that looked to be about the same age as him. They sat together on top of a large table, looking over the group of kids in the room like they were their children. I couldn't see any teacher in sight, so maybe the two of them were sort of in charge, despite the fact that they were not the oldest in the room.

Mika dragged me around the room, introducing me to the various people in Special. There were only a little more than twenty of us, and Mika and I and one five year old from class A were the only elementary school students, the rest were middle school and high school.

Special class soon became the favourite part of my day. In these lessons, Naka taught me different ways of handling the sight, teaching me how to dim and brighten the lights I saw. Soon I didn't need the tinted glasses anymore, and I could use my Alice like a pro. After mastering my Alice, I realised something quite lonely; while others could use their Alices to make activities easier, or to create things, my Alice did not really seem to have a purpose at all. There was really no use for it in a place where everyone already knew that they possessed an Alice. All I could do was to tell people things that they already knew.

Nevertheless, I tried to stay positive. There had to be a reason that I had the Detection Alice. I had to have a purpose in life; I just had to find out what it was. I began to push my Alice to the limits, trying to find out exactly what I could see.

Today, I had the lights up bright, watching the room from my perch on the window sill in the special classroom. Everyone was doing something, whether it was last minute homework or practising Alices. Naka was sleeping in a corner of the room, ever the carefree person, and his blonde haired friend, Shiori, was busy using her alice to try and transport as many desks and tables around him through her warp holes as she possibly could. Mika was playing a game of poker with some middle school kids, a wicked grin on her face.

That wicked grin always drew my attention: what was she up to?

I could see the hand of the person to her right, and I had to force myself to keep a straight face. The guy held two aces, and there were another two already lying face up on the table. Realistically, there was no way he could lose this round.

Mika fluttered her eyelashes at him, clutching her cards closer. Suddenly, the purple aura around her pulsed, swelling up to twice its normal size and making my eyes water. I coughed quietly, trying to blink away the tears so that I could see what Mika was up to.

Mika fluttered her eyelids again, and this time I averted my eyes from her. I knew that the light around people got brighter when they used their Alices, but Mika's light was intense. She was twice as bright as most people even when she wasn't using her Alice. I turned away, wondering if I should dim the lights a little, seeing as Mika was using her Alice on her gullible opponents.

A flash of purple caught my eye again, but that wasn't what made me stop and stare. It wasn't radiating from Mika.

I shuffled off the table, landing lightly on my feet. I patted over to the poker game, wanting to see more. Now that I was concentrating on that small group of people, I could see that besides their normal alice colours, everyone at the table had a glitter of purple dusted over their skin, like Mika's Alice was sticking to them. I watched in fascination as the boy with the two Aces slapped them onto the table in a stupor.

"I fold!" He said dreamily.

I held in a snigger as the rest of the table threw their cards in as well. Mika grinned as she raked up her winnings; a pot of the pocket money that we all got once a month. I turned away from the table, quietly pleased. Somehow, my Alice had gotten sharp enough to the point that I could see other people's Alices as they worked on other people. Finally, I was getting somewhere. Maybe there was something an Alice like me could do.

I turned away from the poker table and went back to my seat, mentally turning the lights up brighter than I usually had them. I was going to look at my classmates again. Obviously there was a lot more going on under the surface that my Alice had yet to reveal. Who knows, with this new development, I might have even gained a valuable ace up my sleeve.

* * *

_Yay! It's a new chapter!_

_I am feeling very pleased with myself right now. I had thought that I wouldn't have much time for writing with a lot of AMV editing projects going on right now, but I'm happy to say that I was wrong. It's probably because I'm a teenager in the middle of summer holidays. Everyone knows that teenagers have nothing better to do than laze around during holidays._

_I think I'm lazier than most. I need to get a job… then maybe I won't be a total waste of space. XD_


	15. How the days passed

One year passed, then two. I received one letter from my parents a month after I came to the school, but never any more. To be honest I didn't really care. While other kids pined away for their families, the only sore spot in my heart was my inability to see Nana, and I could clearly see that Ryuu was hurting more about that than me.

By the time that Ryuu, Mika and I moved into the middle school section, Ryuu and I were both two stars, Mika was a three. Mika worried me. For the past two years, I had watched her closely, but it wasn't until middle school that I really understood. Mika was in special class not only because her Alice was too strong to be in the regular class, but also because it enabled her to do special tasks assigned to her by the principal himself. She got yanked out of class increasingly from when we turned eleven, until she was rarely even able to come to the special classes anymore. When she came back she was sulky and moody, snapping at other people more than usual. Sometimes she came back with scrapes and bruises, like she had been fighting.

Ryuu and I seemed to be her only friends. Despite the friendly atmosphere of the class, most people steered clear of her, not wanting to get affected by the pheromones that seemed to swirl around her like exotic perfume. Ryuu and I could deal with it because I could catch her out. If her Alice started to pulse, I would instantly know that she was trying to use it on us. There were a variety of ways to deal with her, but the easiest way was to jab her in the ribs when I caught her trying to manipulate us. That being said, she didn't try to use it on us very often. I think she was grateful for the company; she must have been lonely before I arrived.

When we graduated from the elementary school, Mika began to disappear from class even more. Once she was gone for a whole week. She came back looking like her soul had been sucked out, and no matter what we said, she refused to tell us what had happened.

She wasn't the only kid from the special class that was doing these assignments either. More and more kids with strong Alices were being transferred into our Alice class. There must have been at least six of them, and all of them refused to talk. The middle school was a breeding ground for rumours, and awful things started to spread about these kids in the Special class. Soon they got their own name: Dangerous Abilities. People whispered that they were the Principal's dogs, doing unspeakable things outside the school. Murder and dark ops became the mutters that followed the Dangerous kids around. Mika bore it all in silence, neither confirming nor denying the rumours.

However, they were just that: rumours. No one actually knew what the Dangerous students got up to. It was the number one mystery of our small school, and none of the people in on it were willing to tell.

I had a quiet niche in the Academy. I kept out of most of the disputes and fights, my grades were nothing to sneeze at, and I didn't cause trouble. If I didn't have such a strange Alice, no one would notice me at all. I didn't mind, I was happy to just live my life coasting in the current of the school. I didn't want to stand out, and for the most part, Ryuu agreed with me. We kept to ourselves, and out of trouble. We both clung to the goal of finishing high school without any trouble, then leaving this place forever. We talked about it sometimes when we were sure we were alone. We just had to get through middle school and high school, then we could both apologise to Nana in person. We only had to tough it out for five more years. We could do it. It was possible.

* * *

I was called to the principal's office just after the start of my second year of middle school. I should have felt happy that I was missing out on maths, my least favourite class, but my knowledge of the rumours surrounding the Principal's activities left a bad taste in my mouth.

He was waiting for me when I arrived at the main building, sitting behind his massive oak desk with a small smile on his face. He gestured for me to sit in one of the chairs in front of him, and I did so, perching awkwardly on the hard wood seat.

"I have heard a lot about your Alice, Yukihira." The principal stretched his lips across his face in a vain attempt at an easy-going smile. "It really is incredible, the ability to see Alices like you do."

It took all my self-control not to glare at him. This man was treating me like a child, beating around the bush in order to sugar coat his words. I took a deep breath, trying not to think of Mika and her scrapes and bruises. "I suppose you could say that." I replied cautiously.

The Principal leaned back. "You must be frustrated, not being able to do anything with such a great Alice." He went on. "You must be envious of your peers somewhat, as their Alices can be put to use much more easily than yours."

"I believe that one day my Alice will be of use, I just have to wait for the right circumstances." I said slowly. _What does he want?_

"How would you like me to present you with the right… circumstances?" The Principal's eyes glinted. "Your Alice could prove to be perfect to help with some situations outside of class time."

I narrowed my eyes. I did not trust this man. There was something about his aura. His Alice was a dark threatening green. It snaked around him like dark vines, twining around his wrists and ankles. I wondered what kind of Alice would give a person such an aura, like he was tainting the air around us.

"What kind of help?" I asked.

The principal leaned forward. "As you may have noticed, our school is not very big." He told me. "It is hard to find children with Alices to fill our roll. Many have subtle and hard to judge powers, and unfortunately, it is impossible to grant a child access to our school without confirming that they have the Alices that they say they have. Up until now, we have been relying on clairvoyants and people like your friend Nakaomi that can see liars to find students for our school."

_Ahhh. That's what he wants._

"I take it that you want a more reliable method of picking out Alices from the general population." I said flatly.

The principal slapped the table enthusiastically. "Exactly!" He said eagerly. "Do you think you could do it?"

I blinked. "I don't know…"I trailed off. "I think it's kind of wrong."

His face snapped into a scowl in an instant. "What do you mean?" His voice was deadly quiet.

"What if I discover a kid who doesn't want his Alice to be discovered? If a person has to leave his family because of me, I wouldn't like that at all." My heart pounded as I said it.

"What person would not want their Alice to be discovered?" The Principal asked firmly. "What person wouldn't want to find out that they are special? Your help in this field would do much more good than harm." He was glaring at me. He did not expect me to deny him his wish.

I stood up sharply and bowed. "Can I have more time to consider this option?" I asked as politely as I could. All I could think about now was escaping that room as quickly as possible.

The principal's eyes flashed, but he ducked his head slowly. "As you wish. Come up with an answer quickly though. I will ask you again shortly."

I could feel his stare burning into me as I walked out of the door, and it made my knees weak. I went back to my dorm room instead of the classroom after that. I knew that if I saw Mika and Ryuu, they would instantly know that something was wrong. I didn't want to make them worry, especially Mika, who has her own problems. This was my problem. I could deal with it alone.

* * *

_Hope the story is starting to get interesting now. I'm starting to bring in all of the darker aspects of the academy that we all know exist, I'm just hoping that it won't make the next few chapters horribly depressing!_


	16. How the net closed in

When I went back to the classroom shortly after lunch, I explained to Ryuu that I had been sick, and shrugged off his questions.

"Where's Mika?" I asked him, looking around the room for the ostentatious girl. She had been there when I left this morning.

A dark look passed over Ryuu's face. "She got called out just before lunch started." He muttered. "She hasn't come back yet."

A dark silence settled over the two of us. This was the third time in two weeks that Mika has been called out of class. Was it just me, or was she getting more of these assignments than usual?

Mika was back in class the next day however, and like usual, she didn't say anything about why she had skipped the day before. We had long since stopped asking her about it. There was no point. I tried not to think about my encounter with the Principal. I still didn't know what to do about his request despite a sleepless night fretting about it.

I didn't know what to do. Mika missed a whole day of school on the fourth day since my meeting with the Principal, then half of a day three days after that. It wasn't just me; her missions were increasing. Mika didn't just look pale directly after coming back from an assignment, she looked pale and sickly all the time. She was quiet and withdrawn, even choosing to sit out of a P.E class because she was feeling ill. Despite being tired, she was gone for two whole days the next week, and even when she did come back, she holed herself up in her dorm room, skipping school the next day as well.

What was she doing? Was she simply sleeping, trying to get her strength back? Or was she crying alone in the dark?

Before I could see her again, I was called once again to the Principal's office.

"This time, you will not speak." The Principal snapped when I came in and sat down on one of his uncomfortable chairs. "Understand, I want you to use your Alice to identify children for our school."

"What if I say no?" I scowled at him. "You can make me look at as many people as you want, but I don't have to tell you what I see."

The Principal stood and turned to his window, a sneer on his face. "You can choose not to co-operate, but bear in mind that you can and will lose certain… privileges."

"My parents don't write to me anyway." I retorted. "I don't care if you cut me off from them."

"You could lose a star rank." The Principal reminded me loftily.

I laughed. "You really think I care about food and pocket money? I'm not that shallow."

Shadows fell across the Principal's face. "You leave me with no choice." He said harshly. "Very well, you may leave. I will make do with the students I already have working for the school."

My blood froze. "Make… do?" My voice was strangled.

"Yes. I am afraid I will have to increase some workloads. It really is a pity." The principal smirked down his nose at me. He's won, and he knows it.

"You… you…"

"I can't understand a word you are saying." The Principal said calmly. "Do speak clearly."

"You're the reason that Mika has been out of class so much." I spat. "You're making her do more of those missions!"

"On the contrary," The Principal examined his nails. "Little Mika's workload is primarily because a selfish person refuses to help out with identifying Alices. Because of this she is forced to go and try and loosen people's tongues about their true abilities herself." He sighed theatrically. "If only someone who had an Alice that could do this job much better would volunteer. Then she wouldn't have to work so hard."

"Bastard."

His head snapped around to pierce me with a furious glare. "I don't care what you call me, but know your place." He hissed. "You think you can defy me? Don't make me laugh child. You think Mika's workload is harsh now? Refuse me once again, and I will show you that that was just light work. You can sit back and watch her break down, knowing that it was all your fault, or you can be a good boy and do as you're told. What will it be?"

My head bowed. "Will you stop sending Mika on missions if I help you?" I asked weakly.

"I think you will see a dramatic improvement in her situation." The Principal replied. "Do we have an agreement?"

The air was thick, tension made my skin tingle. I shut my cursed eyes slowly.

"Yes."

* * *

I started that night after school. After dinner I was sent a message by way of the dorm mother. I was to report to the main building at seven o'clock sharp. When I arrived, I wasn't guided to the principal's office, like I had been the last two times, but to a small room with bright coloured walls, a desk and a comfy chair. The principal was waiting for me there. He indicated for me to sit in the chair, then handed me a folder.

"I know you can see Alices through photographs, which makes this a lot simpler." He smiled at me like he wasn't blackmailing me into doing this. I just stared back, blank faced. I would not give him my usual good manners.

He cleared his throat and tapped the folder. "Take your time looking through the photos, mark the ones who have Alices with a black cross in the upper right corner and put them into this box." He gestured to a grey shallow tray that was also sitting on the table. "The ones that don't have Alices are left unmarked and are put into this box." He tapped a similar white tray that was sitting next to the grey.

The principal walked to the door, leaving me to stare at the folder in my hands. He was going to leave me alone while I worked? Maybe I could let slip a couple of the kids, the ones that I saw had really big lights. That usually meant they had a strong Alice. The ones with strong Alices had a greater chance of ending up in the same situation as Mika and I. Maybe I could help them after all? My heart lightened a little.

"Just to warn you," The Principal's cold voice cut into my thoughts. "I have taken the liberty of placing a couple of control pictures in that folder. I know at least one of those children in there has an Alice. If you try to lie to me, I shall know, and then our deal regarding your friend will be void."

I turned to look at him, well aware how round and frightened my eyes must have appeared. The Principal narrowed his eyes. "Just do as I say, and nothing will happen to you or your friends." He turned away. "You may return to your dorm by yourself when you are done." The door shut with a quiet click, and I was alone.

My hands were shaking as I set the folder down on the desk. I felt utterly humiliated and cornered. Was there really no choice? Did I really have to do this? The bitter taste in my mouth told me that I did, if not for my sake then Mika's. I bit my lip and opened the folder, letting the glossy colour photographs spill out in front of me.

The first photo was that of a little girl. She was missing her front teeth, but that didn't stop her smiling joyfully at the camera, holding out her handful of flowers. Tears blurred in my eyes. Who had taken this picture? Her father, mother? She looked so happy… how could I take her away from the people that love her? She didn't look much older than four or five.

My stomach clenched, and I turned up the lights of my alice until it was on full power. If there was any glimmer on this girl, I would see it.

I stared and stared, but nothing changed. She stayed a sweet little toothless girl, smiling at the camera. She was not an Alice. With a sigh of relief I placed her photo inside the white tray.

The next photo was like a kick to the stomach. The photo after that was even worse. Each time I looked at a new person I was struck by a fear that this would be that photo that would show me a glow that meant the person was an Alice. The tension mounted with each photo, and I felt like I was playing a game of Russian roulette. Who would be the first photo to glow? Whose life was I going to ruin first?

It was a boy, around fifteen years old. From the look of it, the photo was from a middle school year book. It was slightly blurry, but the forest green glow radiating from the picture was unmistakable. This boy was an Alice.

I must have stared at him for twenty minutes at least, wondering who he was, whether he knew of the power he possessed. Did he know that shortly his life was about to change? Did he know that it was because a thirteen year old kid had glanced at his photograph? I wondered if I would ever know if he knew.

Finally I marked the corner with a big black X using the felt pen the Principal had left on the table and placed the boy in the grey box. The photo looked so lonely, sitting all alone in that tray. The white tray was half full, staring at me with dozens of shiny smiling faces.

I sighed and went back to work. There were still a lot of photos, and I wanted to go back to the dorms as quickly as possible. I didn't want Ryuu or Mika to come to my room looking for me and find out I wasn't there.

It took another hour, but I finally got through all the pictures that the principal had given to me. The white tray was overflowing. There were only three pictures in the grey box: the fifteen year old boy, a six year old solemn faced boy and a high school girl with glasses. As I stood up to leave, I wondered which of them had been the control. Maybe all of them were, maybe none, and the Principal had just been bluffing. Most probably I would never know.


	17. How I Spiralled

Once a week I would get a note from my dorm mother from the Principal. Every week I would appear at the main building at seven o'clock and go into that small room with a desk. I rarely saw the Principal. The folder was usually waiting for me when I got there, and I would leave when I was done. Gradually I learned to seal off my emotions when I was doing the work. It was easier not to think about the people I was looking at. They were just pictures to me. Man, woman, child… they all blurred into one. Unfortunately, as soon as they began to glow, the images burned themselves into my mind. I can remember clearly every single face I have placed into that grey tray and doomed to a life as an Alice. I'd wake up at night, covered in sweat after dreams of them all looking down at me, glaring, pointing and yelling.

"_Why did you look at us?"_

"_Why did you tell them we are Alices?"_

"_We were happy the way we were!"_

"_What did we ever do to you?!"_

They would question me for all hours of the night. I knew it was my uncertainty about what happened to these people after I identified them that was bothering me, not the actual identifying itself. It was that uneasiness that kept me awake.

* * *

Mika began to smile again. Her hair regained its bounce; her face got back its wicked grin. She would laugh and talk with Ryuu and me at school. She was rarely out of class at all. In the few months that I started working on the pictures, Mika went from two or more missions a week to less than a couple a month. I think she was confused as to why the missions had suddenly eased off, but she was too afraid to ask why. Ryuu just assumed that the teachers were worrying about her health, and her missions were cut down so that she wouldn't get seriously ill. We didn't talk about this amongst ourselves. But, then, we didn't talk about that stuff before either.

Soon we were middle school third years, and the days just flew by. Mika was only a minor participant in the missions now. She never missed any school anymore, although I knew she still did missions occasionally outside of school hours. She was gaining freedom as my shackles tightened. By midway through the school year, my tasks had grown. Now I was not only looking at photos of potential Alice Academy students, I was also taken outside of the school to where terrorists were being secretly interrogated about anti-academy activities. I was asked to identify if any of the suspects captured had Alices, and to judge how strong they are. I knew this work was necessary to fight the organisations that were deeply involved in Alice trafficking, but it made me sick to my stomach to know that the people that I picked out were destined for brutal treatment and torture. It was assumed that any Alice captured was higher up in the organisation, and therefore the authorities would focus on getting information out of them rather than their normal comrades.

The first time that I went was horrific. There was no hiding from the consequences of my actions this time. I had to throw up later in the safety of my dorm room. This time, it had been a real person in front of me. I had watched as, moments after I had pointed the man out, he was dragged away by two men dressed in black holding shiny batons. I didn't sleep that night, I sat in the corner of my room, shivering and staring at the dark ceiling.

* * *

"Congratulations."

I looked up dully from the desk, where the pile of photographs I had only half finished lay. I stared at the Principal blankly. I wondered when he had come into the room. Had he been watching me for long?

The Principal gently lay something down on the desk. It was a shiny silver star-shaped pin. The Principal grinned down at me and finally I clicked.

"I'm a three star?" I said flatly; more of a statement of disgust than a question.

The Principal nodded. "Your work has been invaluable this past year. You really should have got this before now, but I have been busy."

I looked down at the pin. "Thank you very much." I said in monotone.

I didn't look up again until the door clicked shut behind him. I picked up the pin gingerly and fastened it to my blazer. When I had gained my second star I had felt so happy. I thought it would feel the same when I finally got my third star. I just felt empty. I turned back to the photos.

* * *

_Kind of a short chapter this time around, but I hope it was interesting. Kazumi seems to be falling deeper than he can manage, and I want to show how much of a toll that these activities are having on him. Kazumi always fascinated me. It was said in the manga that he suffered a great deal because of his Alice, and I imagine that he suffered in quite a different way than most of the dangerous abilities students.__Kids like Natsume suffered from the horrible way that they had to treat people with their alices, by directly hurting them. Kazumi suffers more from his imagination. He doesn't see the consequences of his actions, and I think that might be worse, in a way. He doesn't know exactly what he's done, and he doesn't know how to atone for something that he can't see._

_It must be the worst kind of hell, I think._


	18. How reality came knocking

It was really only a matter of time before it happened. One day, our home room teacher walked into the room and told us that we had a new student joining us. The rest of the class turned to look at the new kid eagerly. Classes were too small to change, so new kids were the only chance anyone really had of making new friends.

"This is Ami Hirokima." The teacher smiled as she gestured towards the girl to her left side.

"I'm very pleased to meet you." The girl licked her pale lips nervously, looking up through her midnight dark fringe. Her hair was long and hung loose. When she looked up, her striking blue eyes made her look like some sort of doll rather than a person.

My thought processes froze, and suddenly I found it hard to breathe. I could not forget that face; it was burned into my memory, just like all the others.

"Dude." A sharp elbow poked me in the ribs. "Kazumi, are you okay?" Ryuu looked at me in concern. "You look like you're going to hurl or something."

Mika rolled her eyes and swivelled in her chair to turn around to face us. "Tactful as always I see." She raised her eyebrows at Ryuu. Ryuu stuck his tongue out in reply. "But he's right, you do look really pale Kazu… do you think you should go lie down?" Mika looked at me in concerned sympathy.

I laughed shakily. "I do feel kind of bad." I admitted.

Mika's hand shot bolt upright in the air. "Sensei!" She demanded shrilly. "Kazumi isn't feeling well, can I take him to the infirmary?"

The teacher blinked. She had been focussed on settling in the new girl into a seat near a group of other girls. "I was just about to hand out this month's allowance." She bit her lip. "Hold on, I'll give it to you both before you leave." She turned around to rummage in the box that was sitting on her desk to fish out two envelopes.

Mika was already out of her seat and at the front of the classroom, the teacher pressed the envelopes into her hand and waved me to come forward. I sluggishly got to my feet and began to follow Mika out of the classroom with a sigh.

We were halfway down the corridor when Mika turned around to hand me my envelope with a grin. "Maybe this will make you feel better?" She suggested as I took it from her. "It's your first three star allowance, right?"

I stared down at the envelope in my hand, then back towards the classroom, where the scared Ami Hirokima was trying to fit in with her new classmates. I wondered how many other students had joined the academy because of me this last year. I knew that Ami wasn't the first, but she was the first to join my class. I would have to see her every day, listening to her complain about not being able to see her family just like the rest of my peers, and know that it was my fault.

God… what am I doing?

"Kazumi?"

"Huh?" I looked up to see Mika standing by my side, eyes wide.

"You really should go to the infirmary." She told me. "You're even paler now than you were before."

I looked away from her. "I'll be okay." I said quietly. "You go back to class, I'll go lie down or something."

Mika rolled her eyes. "Stupid." She huffed. "Like I'd leave you alone! I'll take you to your dorm room if you don't want to go see the nurse. You look like you're going to faint."

I looked up to meet her eyes, and she took a sudden step back. I could feel the blank distant nature of my stare. "Thank you, but I'll be fine." I bowed my head slightly and began to walk away.

"Hold on just a second!" Mika grabbed my arm as I walked past, wrenching me to a sudden stop. "What's going on with you?"

I shook her off. "It's nothing. I just feel a little tired. I guess I'm just sick of this place." I turned to face the open window, staring out at the green trees and bushes below us.

"You need to get away from school work more." Mika told me firmly. "You haven't come shopping with me in central town for ages, why don't we do that this weekend?" She sounded a little desperate.

I stared down at the envelope in my hand, filled with the amount of money due to a three star student. Mika wanted _me_ to go _shopping?_

"After all, you have your new allowance to try out now, so we can shop till we drop!" Mika was babbling now, trying to fill up the whole of our conversation by herself.

I walked to the window robotically and shook out the contents of my envelope over the bushes below. The paper notes drifted down, fluttering in the wind and disappearing from sight. Mika cried out and tried to grab my hand, but it was too late. My allowance was already gone.

"Why did you do that?!" Mika smacked me on the head. "Moron!"

I slid down until I was leaning against the wall below the window, sitting on the ground. "I don't want his blood money." I said bitterly. "I don't need it."

Mika took a single step back, looking down at me in absolute horror. The only thing I could hear was her breathing as her chest heaved up and down, gasping. "You…" she began in a choked whisper.

"Go back to class Mika." I repeated, burying my head in my arms. "I just need to gather my thoughts and then I'll be fine. You go back first."

"Why?" Mika fell to her knees in front of me, tears welling up in her eyes. She obviously had chosen to ignore my request for her to go back alone. "How long has he…?"

"About a year." I replied gently. "It doesn't matter."

"He's making you use your Alice to find students for the Academy, right?" Mika asked softly. "That's why you looked so panicked when that new girl came in, right? You've seen her before?"

I nodded once curtly.

Mika began to nod, a glazed look coming over her face. "It all makes sense now." She murmured. "You've been quieter for a few months now, and you always look so tired." Tears began to drip slowly down her cheeks. "What kind of friend am I? I didn't even notice a thing!"

Hesitantly, I patted her head softly. "It's okay. I didn't want you guys to worry about me, so I hid it from you. It's a good thing you didn't notice." I tried to smile at her, but under her quivering stare the weak grin wavered and died. "It's okay." I repeated.

Mika's hair was swung forward, hiding her eyes from me. I couldn't tell what she was thinking at all. Was it really that bad that I hid this from her? There was nothing she could have done. I never should have made the mistake of showing weakness in front of her. I should not have thrown the money away.

"So you're the reason." She finally said, speaking in a very small shaky voice.

"Huh?"

"I asked him a few months ago why I didn't go on many missions anymore." Her voice was barely more than a squeak. "It wasn't like that man to suddenly stop. I knew there had to be a reason. I was scared that he was just biding his time until a big mission came up."

I was scared to speak. Had she figured out how the Principal had blackmailed me?

"He told you that he would cut down on my assignments if you helped him, right?"

Yes. Yes she had.

"I had no choice." I turned my head away sharply, a scowl on my face.

"Moron! How dare you assume…!" She slapped my cheek hard, making my skin smart red. "You shouldn't…" Her hand dropped to the ground. "You shouldn't have done that for a person like me."

I turned back to look at her incredulously. "What is that supposed to mean?!" I demanded, gripping her shoulders with my hands firmly, trying to jerk her head up so that she could look at me in the eye. "Of course I should have done it! You're my friend!"

She still refused to look at me. "I'm an evil child." She said hauntingly, sounding like an echo. It was a statement that she had heard before. Not for the first time, I wondered what had happened between Mika and her family. She didn't get letters from home either, and not once have I even heard her mention the town she had come from, let alone her parents.

I shook her gently. "Mika. You're just like me. I'm an Alice too. If you are evil, we're both evil together." I smiled sadly. "I'm not going to let one of my best friends suffer if I can help it."

Mika's sniffles eventually came to a halt. "Thank you." She breathed. "Thank you."

I shifted uncomfortably. "We should probably go back to class soon." I stared out of the window above us at the baby blue sky. "But I wish we could just run away."

Mika's head popped up like she'd been zapped by a lightning bolt. She looked at me with twinkling eyes, enthusiastic with a sudden idea that had seized her. "It may not be running away quite like you want…" She got to her feet and daintily brushed off the dust that had accumulated on her skirt in the time she had spent on the floor. Offering her hand to me, she continued, "… but I know a place that we can hide out for a while." She pulled me to my feet. "Do you want to visit my secret place with me?"

How could I say no to a request like that?

* * *

_Just a small note, I don't really know a lot about Japanese names, I just sort of pluck sort of appropriate sounding names out of thin air. It's probably not culturally sensitive, but names aren't really that important here. Most of the characters are referred to by their first names, so last names are really only used in introduction scenes where the use of a last name is really important. I apologise to anyone that doesn't like the way that I name my OCs._


	19. How I got things off my chest

Her secret place turned out to be a small clearing in the middle of the northern woods, far off the beaten track that students normally kept to. Wild and covered with mossy grass, Mika flopped down into the shade that a large cherry tree in the centre of the clearing provided. The sun filtered down into this circle of bliss in waves, giving much of the foliage here sparkling halos of light. I lay down next to Mika, and we stared up into the sky. I felt honoured that Mika was showing me this place. If it were me, I'd want to keep this all for myself.

We didn't say anything for a long time, and I closed my eyes, enjoying the gentle sunlight washing over my face. I could hear Mika's quiet breathing at my side.

"I was nine, the first time that the Principal asked me to do something." Mika spoke in a dreamy tone. "He tricked me into doing it; telling me that it was to help protect the academy." She laughed quietly. "I was happy to be useful. Most people in class avoided me, afraid that I would use my Alice on them."

I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at her. She was still staring up at the sky, fragments of sunlight dancing across her face.

"It was easy stuff at first; talking to people that came to the academy, convincing them to do things like signing documents or make phone calls. I didn't really think about the consequences of it. The Principal asked me to do it, so I figured that it couldn't be anything bad." She paused. "By the time you came here, I was starting to go on missions outside the academy. The Principal sent me off with a Teleporter that took me into secure buildings, and then I would talk people into doing stuff again. I quickly realised that this wasn't as innocent as the Principal was making it out to be. I still wanted to believe that I was doing my duty to the school that was my home though, so I didn't protest, no matter what he asked me to do."

She still hadn't turned her head to look at me, and I could see her arms quivering slightly amongst the grass.

"Two years ago, I was on a mission with one of the high school kids. We were supposed to bluff our way into a private function using my Alice, then steal some information from one of the attendees using the high school kid's mind reading and telepathy skills. We were almost done; we had the information and were leaving, when we ran into a security guard outside. I tried to put him to sleep using my Alice, but it didn't affect him. He'd taken anti-pheromone pills, and was specifically aware of who I was and what I was trying to do. My pheromones need surprise on their side to really work well, and the pills just made it that much harder. The guard was going for his gun holster on his hip, and nothing I was doing was working. I froze, and I really thought that I was going to die."

I couldn't tear my eyes away from her now. I couldn't believe that this had really happened to her. While I was worried about tests and whether my Alice could be useful or not, she was facing this.

"I didn't die though." She kept talking flatly. "The high school kid was faster; he shot the guard before he could shoot us. Right between the eyes."

Silence. I opened my mouth, wanting to comfort her, but I shut it quickly again. I had no clue what to say.

"That's not even the worst." Mika choked. "Last year, I was sent on a mission outside. They told that it was a standard break in to gather information, but it wasn't. The adult Teleporter told me to put a man to sleep, and I thought it was so that we could search his office." Mika gulped loundly. "But the moment that the man passed out, the teleporter stepped up to him and shoved some sort of pill in his mouth. Right away the man started shaking and frothing at the mouth. He was poisoned, and I practically did it myself."

The wind whistled softly through the clearing, and Mika fell silent. She shivered in the sunlight, and I knew that she had never said these things out loud before.

"Do you know about the Alice trafficking gangs?" I blurted out.

Mika turned to look at me slowly, a strange look in her eyes, like she had almost forgotten that I was there. "Yes… Kind of."

"When they catch them, they take them all to this prison facility run by Alice Academy in Tokyo." I explained quickly. "The only problem is, they find it hard to pinpoint who the leaders are in these groups, because everyone refuses to talk. The authorities know that only people with Alices could be high up in the organisations, but it's not like they can pick out who has an Alice just by looking at them."

Mika's eyes widened. "They didn't… The Principal couldn't…" Even as she said the words, she knew that they were untrue.

"Every person that I pick out is doomed." I said flatly. "These eyes are a curse. Identification only hurts the people with Alices. I figured it out a while ago. I should never have been born; I should never have come here." I closed my eyes. "All I do is bring pain to people."

I heard a rustle. Mika had sat up. She was probably trying to think up a good argument against my statement.

"My Alice is not something that can be used for anything else." I told her, still keeping my eyes closed. "My only purpose is to find people like us. I wanted it to be used to help people discover their potential, let them know about all the amazing things that they're capable of. It's too late now, this Alice is tainted." I opened my eyes to look up at her, a painful smile on my face. "I'm tainted."

She looked down at me with red rimmed eyes. "You're not tainted." She said firmly, her mouth a thin determined line as she pressed her lips together. She blinked down at me, then lay back into the grass beside me. Her statement made no logical sense, it wasn't an argument proving my innocence. It wasn't even a weak protest. However, I still felt much better, like all I had been waiting for was for someone to come along and tell me that I wasn't as rotten as I felt.

Something warm brushed by my arm, and Mika slipped her hand gently into mine.

"There has to be a reason that we were born this way." She said, "We must be Alices for a reason." We stared up at the blue sky, and I wondered if it was the same sky that Nana or my parents could see. The Academy was so cut off it seemed like we were in a different dimension from that place I had once lived.

"An Alice itself can't be good or evil." Mika continued. "And the person wielding it is not defined by it."

"Three and a bit more years." I said.

"Huh?" Mika turned to stare at me.

I looked back at her, our faces only a short distance apart. "We just have to endure this for three more years." I grinned. "Then you and I will leave this place together." I squeezed her hand tightly.

Mika smiled and turned her face back to the sun. "Three more years." She repeated. "You promise that we'll leave this place together?"

"Yeah… I promise."

* * *

_I was planning on getting a system up and running, you know, regular updates and all that jazz. Unfortunately, I am not an organised person… I try, but I never actually get things done exactly when I plan. Sorry for the gap between chapters, and I promise that I will do better next time XD_


	20. How things change

The next day I went back to school and nothing had changed. I was still in the service of the Principal, forced to identify Alices that didn't want to be found. Ami, the girl from yesterday that I had freaked out over, was still there. Ryuu was his usual self, joking around and generally being goofy. I was still stuck in a boring classroom, with nothing in particular to do.

Mika gave me a small smile as I sat down in my seat, but other than that, nothing had changed between us. She was still one of my best friends, but now she was my confident. My chest felt lighter than it had yesterday, and I couldn't help but return her smile.

Living this quiet kind of existence, we soon graduated from the middle school and moved to the brand new high school buildings. We put on the yellow checked uniforms and yellow ties, trying not to complain that we looked like canaries. Mika and I shared in our quiet glee that we were getting closer to our goal of leaving the academy with each day that passed by. Surprisingly, I had pushed my way to the position of honour student without much difficultly after my entrance into the high school. I was naturally smart, and there was often nothing else to do but read, especially when I was in my Alice class.

Things were not as okay as we wanted to believe though. The Principal still had us doing his dirty work, and the tasks only became more frequent as we got older. Until I entered the high school, I had managed to keep my role as one of the Principal's lackeys a secret from the rest of the school, but that changed a week into the new school year.

* * *

"You're Kazumi Yukihira, aren't you?" a cold voice demanded from behind me.

I turned around to greet the person talking to me. He was a third year high school student, tall and intimidating. I instantly recognised him from his photograph, but that wasn't an uncommon occurrence for me anymore. The population of the school had swollen in the last year, and almost all of the new students were the results of my efforts. The school had gone from ninety students to almost one hundred and fifty in such a short time.

"Yes, I am." I tried a friendly smile, but the boy didn't smile back at all.

"I hear that you have the detection Alice." He said quietly.

"Uh… that's right…" I didn't like where this was going. I looked over my shoulder at Ryuu and Mika, who were hovering nearby, looking at me and the senior. The first year class was in the middle of switching classrooms, and if I didn't hurry up, Ryuu, Mika and I were going to be late for fourth period.

"You can identify people who have Alices, right? Even through photographs?" The boy asked, eyes glinting.

"Yes. That's what my Alice does…" I said slowly.

The boy's eyes flashed dangerously. "I've wanted to talk to you for a while, ever since I found out about the kid with the detection Alice." He grinned. "I mean, it makes no sense. I managed to keep my Alice secret from the Academy for ten years. They had no clue who I was or what my Alice was. But last year suddenly, they turned up at my house and told me that I had to go to Alice Academy. No one but my Mom knew about my Alice, and she's the one who made me keep it a secret in the first place, so she wouldn't have told on me. How do you think the Academy found out who I was?" He paused, and I felt my stomach sink. "Do you think someone else could have told them? Maybe someone who just had to look at my photo in order to tell if I was what they were looking for?"

I swallowed nervously. "Look, I don't know what other people have told you…" The older boy was too close, and I had nowhere to back up.

"Go away." The boy slid back a metre, and I turned back to see Ryuu standing directly behind me with a scowl on his face and his fingers splayed. "Just because you're bitter, doesn't mean that you should be laying down wild accusations!"

The whole corridor had gone quiet now as students on their way to different classes froze, staring at the budding fight.

"Wild accusations?!" The boy spluttered. "Believe me, I've thought about this a lot. This is the _only_ way that I possibly could have been found out."

Ryuu's scowl deepened. "You know that they used the clairvoyants to predict where to find Alices." He pointed out. "It was probably just your bad luck that you popped up in a crystal ball on a particular day."

"Bullshit!" The boy protested. "I know it was him!" He pointed one long finger at me. "Clairvoyants aren't very efficient at picking out Alices, it takes a long time for them to do it, and they are never very sure if the kid is actually an Alice until representatives from the Academy go investigate. Hasn't anyone else noticed that there has been a rapid increase in students of late?" The boy turned around to face the crowd of students that had gathered in the corridor. "They've found a better way of finding Alices to put in their Academy." His eyes landed on me again, and I could see that they were full of loathing. "This scum is helping them identify Alices!"

There was a long silence as everyone looked at me. I looked over at Mika, who was biting her lip. Ryuu looked furious.

"You have no proof!" He finally spluttered. "Kazumi would never…"

"If it's not true, why isn't your friend denying it?" The boy cut in. "He hasn't said a word this whole time."

"I'm sure…" Ryuu trailed off, turning around to look at me. "Kazumi…?"

Maybe I could have bluffed my way through a crowd of other students, but Ryuu knew me better than that. He could read the truth on my face in a second, and his eyes widened in shock. He was speechless; for the first time I didn't know what to make of the look on his face. I couldn't tell what he was thinking at all. Did he hate me? I looked away from him to address the third year once again.

"What is it that you want from me?" I asked bluntly.

The boy took a step forward, a hard look in his eye. "Revenge."

It happened so fast I didn't even have time to blink, let alone dodge. His fist hit me in the left cheek like a wrecking ball, sending me flying backwards. I stumbled to the ground, landing with a hard thump back onto my elbows. My cheek throbbed as I clutched at it and I felt my mind going totally blank. I hadn't really been in a fight since before I met Ryuu, and it had always been a tame schoolyard scuffle, nothing a band aid wouldn't have fixed. Fear struck me dumb as I sat back on the floor. I could see his Alice flaring up, almost out of his control, but there was nothing I could do to stop him. Despite my rare and 'wonderful' alice, I was powerless to stop this guy from pummelling me into the ground.

"Stop!"

Purple washed over everything, and I had to blink back the lights, dimming them down even further than they were already. Mika stood in front of me, one hand in a stop signal pointed at the third year boy. He, along with everyone else in the room, was staring at her with half closed, dreamy eyes. I couldn't believe it. She had used her Alice on over thirty people all at the same time, with only a split second to react to the situation. It was no wonder that the Principal wanted to use her. I realised that up until now I had only really witnessed a fraction of her real power.

"Mika…" I started, but I was cut off by another voice.

"Let's get out of here." Ryuu grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet. He, like me, was unaffected by the powerful pheromones that were swirling around the room. I wondered if that was Mika's doing as well, manipulating her Alice so that only the people she wanted to control were affected.

Ryuu began to pull me down the corridor, Mika following close behind. We exited the High school in a matter of moments and began to make our way back to the dorms. Ryuu didn't let go of my arm until we were inside his dorm room, and no one said a word until Mika gently closed the door and locked it with a sharp click.

Ryuu didn't look at me, instead he hovered at his window, staring at the cloudy sky outside.

"I think you two need to tell me what has been going on now." He murmured finally.

Mika and I exchanged a look, slightly startled.

"I know that something has been going on with you for the past year." Ryuu continued, "And I figured out that Mika knew about it a while ago." He turned around to look at us, hurt in his eyes. "I didn't want to force this out of you. I wanted you to tell me on your own." He looked to the floor. "Did you think I was stupid enough not to realise that you were disappearing from the dorms some nights? I know that you've started doing the missions for the Principal, just like Mika."

"I didn't want you to worry." I said weakly. "It's frustrating not being able to do anything, so I thought it would be easier on you to keep it a secret."

"You don't think it was more frustrating for me to find out that my best friend doesn't trust me enough to tell me his problems?" Ryuu's voice was sharp.

Silence reigned in the room once again.

"If we told you, would you still be our friend?" Mika asked in a tiny voice.

She sat with her back against the door, a frightened look on her lovely face as she looked across the room at Ryuu.

Ryuu gaped at her. "What's that supposed to…?"

"I've killed someone." She blurted, blue eyes quivering.

Ryuu took a startled step back and almost crashed into the window. "What..?" He'd gone deathly white.

I scowled at Mika. "That isn't the best way to tell someone that." I scolded her. "Are you planning to kill Ryuu with a heart attack or something?"

Ryuu clutched at his forehead. "Please explain to me… in more detail this time."

Hesitantly, Mika told him everything she had told me, words just rolling off her tongue. After she finished speaking, it seemed only natural that I should tell Ryuu everything. I blurted it out before I lost the courage, deliberately looking at the weave of the carpet the entire time rather than Ryuu's face.

Ryuu was quiet for a long time afterwards, making the tense atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"You've been through a lot."

I looked over at him, and saw that he was staring at the floor, fist clenched in his lap. I wondered what was going through his mind; whether he hated us, felt sorry for us, or even still liked us at all. Mika and I had done some horrible things. I was surprised that he hadn't walked out of the room yet.

"I want to punch that bastard in the face so bad." His voice shook almost as hard as his fists. "Kazumi… I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Of all the things he could have said, I was not expecting an apology.

"It was my fault that you came here, and it was my fault that your Alice was discovered." Ryuu's face crumpled into despair. "It's my fault that you're in this situation now."

"I don't blame you at all." I said firmly. "Even if I wasn't friends with you, I'm sure that my Alice would have been found out one way or another. I prefer it this way, at least I knew I had a friend I could count on when I arrived here." I looked away, knowing that this speech was starting to sound corny. "I'm so glad that I'm not alone."

Ryuu looked at me evenly, and I could see no judgement in his expression. "So what do we do now?" He wanted to know.

I sighed. "The whole school knows, or at least suspects, that I work for the Principal now. Things could get ugly. People like that third year will come after me again." I locked gazes with Ryuu. "If you don't want to get shunned as well, it might be better if you stop associating with me."

"As if!" Ryuu snorted. "I wouldn't abandon you just to keep up my popularity with those morons."

I smiled in relief, but I was still nervous. "Are you sure?" I asked. "I don't know what the other kids will do…"

Ryuu rolled his eyes. "All the more reason for me to stick around then. You can't protect yourself very well, in case you hadn't noticed. I'll be there, ready to shove people out windows if they get too physical."

"Uh… don't shove anyone out of a window." I said hastily. "I don't think hospitalizing anyone would really help the situation at all."

"I guess so." Ryuu almost sounded disappointed.

"Most people will just ignore you." Mika spoke in a knowing tone. "After today, I think most people are going to be too scared to confront you."

"They're not scared of me." I pointed out. "They're scared of you."

"For good reason." Ryuu said darkly. "Did we know that your Alice could do that? Affect all those people at once without affecting us?"

Mika shrugged. "Did you really want to know?" She asked stiffly. "I didn't want you guys to get scared of me as well."

"It doesn't matter." I declared, sensing a budding argument. "What matters now is that we all decide what we're going to do at school from now on."

Ryuu blinked. "What are you talking about? Does anything have to change?"

Mika looked at me in confusion as well.

"I guess it doesn't." I grinned. "We just go to school like normal… agreed?"

"Agreed." They chorused.

* * *

_It has been pointed out to me that I'm not very good at replying to the awesome reviews I've been getting for this story… Sorry about that… I'm not very good at talking to people. I over analyse things that I want to say to the point that I get paranoid that people will think I am a weirdo. This paragraph you see… yeah, I've rewritten it at least three times…_

_In any case, I have decided it's time to stop being a baby and actually talk to people, so what I'm going to do is reply to some of my reviews right here at the bottom of this chapter :)_

_For starters: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT HAS REVIEWED SO FAR! Trust me, every single one of those reviews gave me the fuzzy feeling inside that makes me want to keep writing. I love reading the reviews that my story gets, so thanks for taking the time to write something down for me._

_Now to questions… I see that one question seems to pop up a lot: 'Will Izumi be appearing?' The thing is, I'm not to sure. I love Izumi, but the fact is that this is a fanfict based on Kazumi's school life, and Izumi isn't even born (according to the timeline I have pieced together from reading the manga too many times) until after Kazumi turns 18. Even then, the brothers don't even know about each other until much later. But you never know… I don't want to give too many things away…_

_There's only one other question that I think I can answer from the reviews, and I've forgotten whether I actually did get round to answering it in a private message… oh well. The question was about Kazumi's detection alice and how it worked. In this fic, Kazumi can only see the colours of the Alices. He can also see them being active as a person uses his/her alice. There isn't much information about how Kazumi's alice worked in the manga, so I made a lot of that stuff up myself. As for Kazumi's other alice, don't worry, that's coming._

_Hope that answered some questions without giving away too much of the plot. I don't want to spoil things for you. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them in a review or to PM me. Even if you don't have a question, feel free to PM me anyway. I like talking to other people… as long as they initiate first contact… God I am such a scaredy cat…_

_Bookaholic346 is over and out. (After writing a freaking essay at the bottom of her chapter… God, I'm a klutz.)_


	21. How a girl managed to surprise me

Mika was right. No one attacked me that first day at school, they just ignored me. Even the other kids in my class that I thought that I had been reasonably good friends with avoided me a little. Ryuu and Mika acted like normal, which stopped the situation from being too awkward. Things might have stayed like that for the rest of high school, if not for one person plucking up the courage to talk to me three weeks later.

"It's true, then."

I looked up, startled, to stare at the quiet girl standing beside my desk. "Pardon?" I replied.

She blushed scarlet, looking out at me from behind her black fringe. "It's true that you find people with Alices for the Academy?"

I couldn't believe that Ami was talking to me. Ever since she started in the Academy, it had been pretty obvious that she was painfully shy, barely plucking up the courage to even speak to the group of girls that had befriended her.

"Yeah…" I trailed off. My heart thumped. Was she going to accuse me of ruining her life too? Not too many people had tried to confront me after the situation with the third year, but it was only a matter of time before someone else tried. I just didn't think it would be Ami.

Ami looked down to look at the floor, still blushing scarlet. She shifted from foot to foot, looking like she wanted to disappear. By now, almost everyone in the class had noticed that someone who wasn't Mika or Ryuu was talking to me, and they all fell silent, hoping to eavesdrop.

"I just… I wanted to…" She stuttered.

I smiled kindly at her. "You want me to apologise." I guessed. My voice was gentle. I liked Ami, and of all the people likely to confront me, I wanted to apologise to her the most. "I'm really sorry."

Ami looked up at me, a look of shock on her crimson face. "That's not it at all!" She protested. "You don't have to apologise to me! I came over here to thank you!" She blurted.

The whole class stopped pretending that they weren't listening to turn around to stare at Ami as if she was going mad.

And for good reason; she had clearly gone insane. "Why are you thanking me?" I asked incredulously. "Most people want to hit me."

She stamped her foot and looked at me with a determined look in her eyes. "Do you know what my Alice is?" She asked, avoiding my question.

"The dance Alice, wasn't it?" I answered, unsure of what that had to do with anything.

"Yes." She confirmed. "But I didn't know that I had it until third year of middle school, when some people from the government visited my school and talked to me." She paused, biting her lip. "My mom, she always wanted me to do well in school, so I had tutors and cram school. When I was little, I begged her to let me go to dance lessons, but she said no. If my Alice hadn't been discovered, my life would have gone on like that. I would have gone to a good high school, then university, then gotten a job at an office or something." She took a deep breath, and I could see that her face wasn't crimson anymore. She was calm as she told me all this. "Because my Alice was discovered, I had to leave my Mom and my little sister behind, but instead I got to come here and learn to dance. It's easily the best thing that ever happened to me." She looked around self-consciously, realising just now that the whole class was listening to her speech. Her face was back to its crimson colour again. "I just wanted to thank the person who discovered my Alice and allowed me to come here and meet everyone." She ducked her head and scurried away, back to the safety of her best friend; Aoki. The rest of the class, sensing that the event was over, turned back to their former conversations. The atmosphere of the class went back to normal.

"That was strange." Ryuu muttered from his seat next to me.

Mika turned back in her own seat to face us. "I didn't think that Ami could speak to anyone apart from Aoki." She said in an amused tone. "Fancy that."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's please not look too deeply into this." I told them. "She's just one kid who is happy that I found their Alice. Don't forget that everyone else is still angry at me."

Mika turned back around to face the blackboard, sighing. Ryuu tapped his desk with a pencil.

"I think that Ami might be the only one of them who has thought about this properly." He complained. "They shouldn't be mad at you… you just told them that they're special. It's the Principal that brought them here."

I sighed. "It's just easier to get mad at me." I told him. "It's not like they have the opportunity to throw a punch at the Principal. I'm the closer target."

"That's the stupidest idea ever." Ryuu huffed, but he dropped the subject. There was no point debating something that was already a fact.

* * *

The next day, I was attempting the most dangerous part of my day when I realised just how big of an impact that Ami's thanks had had on my classmates. The most dangerous part of my day is the trip from the main classroom to the French classroom. Neither Ryuu nor Mika took French, so it was a trip through the corridors that I had to make alone. It was usually at this time that I was confronted by the other students. Without Ryuu and Mika, it was like I the target painted on the back of my head had gained neon lights. Everyone was afraid of my friends' Alices, and left me alone. Without them, the fear didn't keep people back anymore.

Today it was a hard-nosed second year girl with a short skirt and thick makeup. She looked tough, and from what I vaguely knew about her, I recalled that she was in the latent class, but I didn't know what her Alice was. All I knew was that it was lemon yellow, and it was pulsing with anger as she walked towards me.

She didn't waste any time, cornering me into one of the walls of the corridor. When I tried to shove away from her, I was bounced back, like there was a wall in my way. Focussing my Alice, I could see a faint tinge of yellow encircling me and the girl. She had a barrier Alice.

"You're the Detection Alice kid." She growled. "You're the reason that I'm here, dog of the Principal!"

I flinched in preparation for the punch that was surely coming. I never fought back against any of these encounters. I deserved each and every hit that came my way.

"What are you doing!?" An angry voice cut through the barrier, and both the girl and I looked up, startled.

A pink haired girl was standing in front of us with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "What are you doing?" She repeated with a snarl.

The second year girl narrowed her eyes. "Why are you interfering?" She hissed. "This guy is the traitor who has been ratting us out to the Principal! He's a snitch!"

Aoki's eyes narrowed too. "So what?" She asked. "He's not the person that you're truly angry at, so leave him alone." She laughed. "Unless you find it fun to pick on a guy who can't even fight back?"

I could almost see the sparks flying between the two girls as I leaned back against the wall, frozen with fear.

Aoki grinned evilly. "I suggest you move along now… That is, if you are fond of your underwear…" She twitched one outstretched hand, and I saw the second year girl turn pale. "One command from me and all your stitching can come loose. The whole school will be seeing you naked this afternoon."

The girl started to back up pretty quickly. It appeared that her small barrier did not protect against attacks from technical Alices like Aoki's. The two of us watched as she half walked, half ran away in fear.

"Why did you help me?" I asked curiously. "You shouldn't associate with me. They might come after you next."

Aoki gave a long sigh, her pigtails bobbing. "I've been thinking about this a lot." She said. "It's been giving me a headache, trying to figure out what's been going on with you and Mika and Ryuu."

I frowned, not understanding. Aoki reached out and grabbed my wrist, tugging me in the direction of the French classroom.

"Then I finally decided last night that I would stop thinking about things that made my head hurt." Aoki told me as we walked. "I've known you since elementary school. You're not the kind of person who would volunteer to work for the Principal; so that only leaves the option that you were black mailed in some way." Aoki looked away, cheeks tinged the same colour of her hair. "I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions and started avoiding you. It won't happen again."

I couldn't say a word, just kept staring at her in surprise the whole way to the French room. Of all the things I thought might have happened today, I had not been expecting this turn of events. Aoki stuck to her words too, after that moment that she saved me in the hall, she began to treat me the same as she always had. The next day at school, she and Ami sat down in seats nearby Mika, Ryuu and me and joined in our conversation like we were anybody else. Aoki and Ami made it clear that they didn't care about what I had done, and soon the rest of the class began to follow their lead. Most of them confessed that they felt better when they were talking to me again, and I realised that all of them hadn't been shunning me because they hated what I did, but because they were confused about whether or not I was on the teachers' side. Once Aoki had pointed out, rather rudely, that the Principal was not above blackmail, they gratefully decided to forget about the problems about loyalty that were swimming around in everyone's heads.

Soon our class was a fortress. We didn't rely on anyone but ourselves. Teachers were out. Sempai were out. We stuck together like never before. Now I found if someone decided to harass me in the corridors, not just Ryuu and Mika would come to my rescue, but anyone and everyone in our class would suddenly step up to stare the bullies down. I never thought that I would ever have friends like this in my life. The next few months were the best I'd had since I'd started working for the Principal. I felt like I could become myself again. No secrets, no lies, no hiding.

* * *

_This past month seems to have flown by for me. I've had so much to do at school with tests and assignments. I kept meaning to update this, but every time I sat down to do it, someone would find me and give me something else to do, (BTW, thanks for all the chores, my lovely parents)_

_Anyway, let me apologise now to the people that have been following this story; I didn't mean for there to be so long between chapters, it just happened. If you're still willing to follow my story of Kazumi (and I really hope that you are) then you might just have to get used to the very random postings of chapters… sorry…_

_Now for some questions!_

_About Izumi: I am planning a sort of sequel chapter with him in it, but you have to be patient. Patience grasshopper, Izumi will only come once Kazumi has finished telling his story._

_About the Longevity Alice: Coming soon, and you might find it interesting. The Manga doesn't have much information on exactly what his second Alice does, so I've taken the liberty of making some stuff up about it._


End file.
